


Caught In The Headlights

by MarvelingMarvelous



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series)
Genre: Alastor fucks, Alastor is a chivalrous cannibal serial killer, F/M, Human, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Old-Fashioned, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessive Behavior, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:42:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 53,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27218842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarvelingMarvelous/pseuds/MarvelingMarvelous
Summary: It seemed in order to escape a bad man she had to run into a truly wicked one.After discovering the worst side of her father Charlie flees her family's estate thanks to the help of a strange man with an out of place smile. After ignoring possibly every red flag, she finds herself at the mercy of a mad man and the two other women he’s kidnapped.Armed with a very flimsy documentary knowledge on serial killers, Charlie attempts to appeal to her captor's humanity and find her way to freedom. Unaware that the closer she gets the further she herself falls.[Or, Alastor kidnaps women "for their protection" and Charlie happens to be one of them.]
Relationships: Alastor/Charlie Magne, Alastor/Mimzy (background)
Comments: 173
Kudos: 270





	1. Like A Lamb To The Slaughter

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I've recently rediscovered my love for Hazbin Hotel and the Charlastor ship. Since there's not a lot of fanfics available I decided to try and contribute myself. I hope you enjoy this self indulgent story along with me! :)

  


The doors of the Magne estate swung open in a panicked frenzy. A young woman with rosy cheeks stumbled, tumbling down the stone steps, before landing face first in the snow bank. She didn’t have time to mind the pain in her now battered ankle, instead she frantically scrambled to her feet and sprinted across the front lawn. Cursing the obvious footprints that she left in her wake.

“Charlotte Magne, get back here this minute!” Shouted the disapproving voice of her father behind her. Followed by the muffled grumbling under his breath. “Honestly— what an over dramatic child.”

Over dramatic? Her? She wasn’t the one discovered to be brutally torturing and murdering innocent people in their basement. 

She hated herself for not seeing the signs. She knew her father was a shady man, that he profited off the misfortune of others but she never knew the true extent. The man had always been a cut-throat loan shark but Charlie had never questioned what happened when his clients failed to pay back their debts.

Now she knew.

Tears swell up in her eyes, nearly turning to ice in the frozen air as they rolled down her face. She couldn’t bear to be in that house another moment. Knowing what horrendous monstrosities took place just beneath her feet. If that demented demon was truly the man she had called father all these years then she was more than happy to never see him again. 

“Go fetch her, will you.” Charlie heard her father order his lackeys over the loud whistling wind. It wasn’t till she ducked into the tree line that her father’s tired voice was drowned out by the sounds of the night. Low hanging branches pulled her hair loose from it’s braid, scratching her porcelain skin in the process, still she pushed through into the abyss of towering trees and freshly fallen snow.

It wasn’t till her bare foot snagged on a hidden tree root that she realized how off trail she had wandered. She shrieked, a blood curdling scream tearing through her lungs as all hundred and so pounds of her descended down the hillside in a painful display. Immediately giving her location away to the entire forest in the process .

By the time the girl reached the end of her little tumble she was coughing up dead leaves, and pulling twigs from her hair. She had barely regained her balance when a sudden flurry of steps came hurling towards her. 

“Please don’t-” The girl backed herself up against one of the many white birch trees. Curling into a ball at the base of which as she cried. “Leave me alone!”

She expected the worst. She expected to find herself being hauled over some brute’s shoulder and lugged back into the dungeon her father called home. Reality was much crueler than she realized. 

Just then several shots rang out through the dark woods. 

Charlie squealed in absolute horror, burying her face even further into her snow soaked pajamas. She didn’t know who was shooting or why, all she could hope for was a swift, painless death. 

The silence that followed grew deafening in the night air. It wasn’t till the anxiety of not knowing overthrew the bliss of ignorance that Charlie dared to peek through her wet, golden curls.

There, just a few yards away, her father’s goons laid cold and limp in mounds of snow, pools of red quickly dying the white earth beneath them. Blood.

Death followed her like a leech.

“Are you alright, my dear?” Charlie nearly jumped out of her frostbitten skin. She swallowed her fear, slowly turning to look beside herself where she found an unfamiliar man leaning around the tree she was coward behind. 

The man had a remarkably gentle aura to him despite the circumstances. Brown hair gently framing his warm eyes, and a soft smile working desperately to put her racing heart to ease. An immediate sense of sanctuary rush over her, pushing out the breath of air she didn’t realize she had been holding onto. She would have trusted him entirely if not for the flash of metal shining in his hands. A musket.

Charlie eyed the gun in sheer terror, and the stranger seemed to almost instantly pick up on the cause for her anxiety.

“Oh- No, no, no! See look—” The man exclaimed, his eyes scanning the horizon before setting the weapon aside and baring his empty palms towards the girl. The weapon remained at arms length, and part of Charlie welcomed that fact, knowing it’d come in handy if her father sent anyone else after her, still the display of good faith cemented her trust in the stranger.

“You’re safe. I assure you that.” The man proclaimed, suddenly shrugging off his outer coat and swinging it over Charlie’s trembling shoulders. “I have no intentions of hurting you, sweetheart.”

As the man wrapped her up in his blissfully warm coat she just barely took note of his attire. He wore long dark slacks, tucked into a pair of tall, laced up boots. The absence of the heavy wool coat left him in just a plain white button up and suspenders. Charlie blinked as the fleeting thought crossed her mind.

He was dressed unusually old fashioned. 

Charlie shook her head, her focus returning to the urgency of their situation. 

“I say we leave before daddy dearest sends more cannon fodder our way. Wouldn’t you agree?” The man smirked, a faint sparkle in his eyes that seemed out of place given their predicament.

Charlie’s mind was far too rattle to question her savior’s beaming smile. Instead she nodded vigorously as she took his hand and was pulled up to her feet. She winced painfully as she tried to take a step on her swollen ankle. 

The man clicked his tongue against his teeth, making a sound that seemed to say no good. He bented down to both assess the damage and collect his weapon, swinging the musket over his shoulder before straightening his back.

“I’m afraid you won’t be walking with that. Still— not to worry,” He said before leaning down to sweep her off her feet, carrying her bridal style. “I wouldn’t dream of leaving you behind.”

Charlie gasped as she was lifted up, immediately throwing her arms around the man’s neck for support, merely earning a humored chuckle from him as he proceeded to navigate the darkness with expertise. It seemed he knew the forest like the back of his hand, maneuvering through the harsh terrain till they happened upon a dirt road. Charlie gasped excitedly when she spotted the faint silhouette of a car in the distance. 

Charlie’s savior merely returned her triumphant expression as they approached the vehicle. He swiftly pulled open the side door, before gently placing her into the passenger seat and buckling her in.

“Before the adrenaline wears off and that nasty ankle of yours really starts to hurt,” The man leaned over Charlie's legs, reaching to pry open the passenger side panel and pulled out a bottle of medication. “Take this. You’ll thank me later.”

He didn’t say anything else before stepping back and swinging the door shut. Charlie eyed the bottle of medicine as her ankle began to throb as if on queue. She found comfort in the familiar label of Ibuprofen, ignoring the foreign shape of the pills as she choked down two of them.

The man returned to the vehicle, now on the driver’s side. His eyes briefly flickering across the women beside him as he noted her compliance with his suggestion. The grin on his face widening further as he started the ignition and began cruising out of the forest.

Charlie stared straight ahead, mesmerized by how horrifying the scenic landscape appeared at night. As they continued on she suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness rush over her. She fought desperately against it, straightening in her seat despite her body’s resistance. 

“I... I don’t know your name.” Charlie spoke, hoping the conversation would be enough to keep her conscious.

“Alastor.” The man answered, after a moment of hesitation. He continued to periodically glance her way as he drove, as if assessing her condition. By this point Charlie was far too inebriated to take notice. 

“Alastor.” Charlie repeated, partly to better absorb the foggy information. “Thank you...” 

Alastor briefly took his eyes off the road to meet the drunken girl’s gaze. A soft, warm smile spreading across his face once again. 

“It was my pleasure, angel.”

After that Charlie rapidly lost the will to fight the exhaustion consuming her. Her body slumped to the side of her seat as her head rolled back limply against the headrest.

Still she heard the distant sound of Alastor’s humming as he toggled on the car’s radio. He seemed to consider a few channels playing old timey jazz before eventually settling on a station reporting the news.

She fell asleep to a report warning citizens of the rising bodycount of a serial killer in the area. Evidently, they were still on the loose. 

  


* * *

  


She awoke to the rhythmic sound of a sewing machine. 

Her eyes still heavy with sleep as they squinted, bracing themselves against the dull light, before daring to open. 

To say the room was foreign to her was an understatement. The room was foreign to the decade. Every square inch appeared to come straight out of an old movie. Tall windows rivalled only by the height of the ceiling were framed by beautifully ornate, red curtains. The walls were lined with dark wood panels that featured intricate details carved into each piece, an equally mesmerizing design came from the vintage style rug that lined the parameter of the room. 

With each glance across the room Charlie just felt more and more out of place.

“H-Hello..?” She choked out, despite how dry her throat felt. She struggled to sit up on the plush sofa that she was laid on, her head pounding with the motion.

As soon as she spoke the sound of mechanical sewing came to a brief halt.

“I hope you don’t mind the racket,” Suddenly spoke an older woman on the far side of the room. “But these garments are for you after all.”

Charlie whipped her head in the direction of the women’s voice, immediately regretting the rapid movement as she felt her head spin. Regardless, she quickly spotted a tall, elegant woman sitting beside an old sewing machine. Charlie marveled at her beauty, admiring the sheer confidence and grace her aura carried. The woman’s dark eyes remained fixed on her current project as she moved to cut away a few stray threads from the fabric in her hands. 

“W-Where am I? What… What happened?” Charlie gasped as the fear of the unknown began to sink in. Her heart now pounding in her chest.

“Ah yes, all good questions. Questions that have all been asked before I can assure you that.” The women responded with disinterest. “Unfortunately it’s not my responsibility to fill you in. I’ll leave that to, Alastor. Thank you very much.”

Charlie shrank back pathetically under the woman's sharp gaze. Raking her mind upon recognizing the familiar name she had mentioned. 

Alastor? Alastor… Alastor! Suddenly the memories of that dreadful night came surging forth with reckless abandon. Still, even with the help of her memories they did nothing to explain her current situation.

The woman sighed as she took notice of the girl’s confused expression. She rose from her sewing station, taking the pile of fabric with her as she approached the girl.

“Regardless— My name is Rosie. I’ve been asked to fit you into something more...appropriate.”

“What’s wrong with my-” Charlie looked down at herself suddenly realizing her own clothes had been replaced with a dainty white nightgown. “My clothes!”

“Yes, I’m afraid those ghastly rags of yours couldn’t be saved. No, from their very conception they were destined for the trash heap— Stand up would you?” 

Before Charlie could snap back at the older woman’s insult she was being pulled up to her feet. She flinched mildly at the pain in her ankle but for the most part the swelling had luckily gone down. The women didn’t seem as bothered by her pained expression as Alastor had been before.

“Arms up now.” Rosie sang with an undertone of impatience. Charlie eventually complied begrudgingly, welcoming any clothes rather than the thin thing she currently found herself in. The woman pulled the garments over her head after discarding her nightgown.

“I’m afraid Alastor prefers more of a nineteen-twenties aesthetic himself— but so long as it’s old fashion and modest he won’t complain.” Rosie rambled as she spun the girl around and began fastening the buttons in the back. “Between him and Mimzy I’m sick of it. Low waists and straight silhouettes— how dull. No, this suits you much better, don’t you think?”

Charlie turned around after Rosie swatted her playfully on the rear, ready with an armada of questions before her reflection in the nearby dressing mirror caught her eye.

She was dolled up in a loose milky blouse, with puffy sleeves that cinched in at the cuffs. Her skirt was high-waisted and hung just below her knees, framing her nicely with it’s lovely pink hue. Each piece featured black details in the form of buttons, ribbons and trimming that complimented her beautifully.

Honestly, as she stood there gaping at the stranger staring back at her in the mirror, she couldn’t deny how gorgeous she felt. It seemed Rosie was quite the seamstress.

“Never say I didn’t do anything for you, sweetheart.” Rosie remarked like the cocky viper she was before turning on her heel to leave the room. 

“Wait!” Charlie called out after she snapped back to reality, running after the women who despite her cold demeanor at least seemed safe to her by now.

As Charlie followed behind the woman like a lost puppy her barrage of questions was suddenly interrupted by a blaring smoke alarm. 

“Gosh darn it! No, no, no!” Wailed a high voice. Charlie halted her steps as she looked in it’s direction and noticed a cloud of dark smoke coming from an open kitchen.

In the smoke fumbled a short, plucky woman. Her hands covered by thick over mitts as she hurried to reach inside the burning oven and salvage the remains of what appeared to be a very chard baguette.

“Good god, Mimzy.” Rosie huffed, walking over to open a window, trying to fan out the billowing smoke. “Give it a rest will you? We already know Alastor isn’t keeping you for your cooking.”

“Oh, excuse me for trying to help the man!” The blonde woman squawked as she dropped the mental tray square on the countertop, fixing Rosie with a sour snarl. Rosie merely raised a perfectly arched eyebrow as she leaned against the window sill.

“At least I’m not some clumsy bimbo just snoozing the days away, you know.” Mimzy rolled her eyes till they landed on Charlie this time, the woman’s foul energy now shifting to her. “Nothing but a burden on poor Al since he hauled your limp butt in here. Shameless!”

“I- I’m sorry?” Charlie responded instinctively. Always used to submitting in the face of confrontation, but as soon as she remembered her situation she corrected herself with squared shoulders. “Wait a minute— No! No, I’m not sorry at all. You think I want to be here? I don’t even know where the hell I am!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Mimzy waved the girl off dismissively, ignoring her almost entirely as she went about cleaning her mess. Only laughing at the girl’s needless rambling. Charlie felt her face balloon with anger.

“Trust me, I’ll be out of your hair as soon as I can call my friend to come get me.” Charlie spoke, hoping to sound more harsh than she actually did. Instead the thicker woman just snorted in response.

“Wouldn’t that just be peachy.” Mimzy laughed. “Good luck getting Alastor to cough up the phone though, princess.” 

“Why wouldn’t he?”

Before Charlie could get her answer the sound of a car could be heard pulling into the driveway, catching the attention of the older women. 

“Speak of the devil.” Rosie suddenly spoke up as she peered out the open window. “He’s back. Finally, now he can baby sit the two of you.”

“Rosie, you b-” Mimzy spat under her breath before being interrupted by the chime of the front door swinging open.

“Good evening, my darlings!” Announced a familiar voice, one that now seemed to send chills up Charlie’s spine. Charlie could only see the shadow of a man removing his hat and coat against the wall of the distant hallway. She sucked in her breath as the silhouette approached and the man from that fateful night stepped into the room— looking just as warm and welcoming as she remembered.

“I’ve got some of the most delicious looking cuts for dinner. I think I know just the right recipe—” The man rambled on joyously, only stopping when he walked head first into the smoke infested kitchen. “Oh? What’s this?”

“Mimzy’s home cooking.” Rosie answered with a humored smirk, earning a pair of icy daggers from Mimzy herself.

“Oh, how thoughtful of you, sweetheart.” Alastor beamed, plucking the burnt calamity up off the tray and dropping it into the waste bin. “Practice makes perfect eventually I suppose.”

Alastor swiped his hands together as he brushed off any lingering crumbs. He proceeded to carry on casually conversing with the two ladies, merely chuckling as he maneuvered around the kitchen, putting away the groceries he had carried in. 

He hadn’t noticed Charlie yet, too busy entertaining the other two women with his daily report. Charlie decided that it was probably for the best. Something in the back of her mind told her the honest, direct approach to getting out of this place was dead in the water. As trustworthy and genuine as Alastor seemed at a glance, the longer she looked the more cracks she started to notice in his mask. 

She wanted to find a way out before she had a chance to notice any more. 

The girl leaned back as she searched for a better view of where the man had come from, she slowly inched in the same direction, knowing an exit was surely that way. Unfortunately, it seemed her slow movements were spotted near instantly. Alastor’s wide eyes immediately darted in her direction and sparkling in delight.

“Ah— Charlie!” The man beamed. His perfect smile widened as he approached her. Charlie took a step back and sank into herself instinctively as he took her hand and began circling her like a shark in the water. “You look even more ravishing than expected, my dear. Rosie’s certainly out done herself this time!”

It wasn’t lost on Charlie how the air around Mimzy grew wickedly bitter as Alastor’s attention fell on her. If only the woman knew how unwelcomed it truly was, then Charlie would really be despised.

“I- uh- thank you?” Charlie answered awkwardly, desperate to deflect the compliment. She shook her head as she remembered her priorities. “Look— Alastor, I’m really grateful for your help last night-”

“Not last night.”

“Huh?”

“I found you two nights ago, dear. Bruised and battered, poor girl. A ghastly sight no doubt.” The man explained, a pained expression briefly shooting across his face as he recalled that night.

“Two days?!” Charlie gasped in horror. Suddenly imagining how horrified everyone must be by her disappearance.

“I suppose the stress of a near death experience really took it out of you.” The man theorized with a shrug. Stepping around the girl as he walked back into the kitchen. 

“Near death? No, no, no, you’re mistaken, sir.” Charlie rambled, following after him from a cautious distance. 

No one even noticed when Rosie silently excused herself to leave the room. The older woman was well aware of where this conversation was heading, and hoping to avoid the headache. Mimzy on the other hand shifted objectives from cooking to instead setting the dinner table nearby. Humming a cheerful song as she tuned out Charlie’s voice.

“Oh? How so?” Alastor questioned, though his mind seemed concerned elsewhere as he went about shuffling through the kitchen. Opening cabinets and drawers as he collected his supplies, bringing pots and pans over to the stove top.

Charlie appeared visibly frazzled as she attempted to regain the man’s attention, hoping to explain to him the importance of the matter.

“My father may have sent those men but he wouldn’t let any of them lay a finger on me! He may be a disturbed man— I know that— but he’d never hurt me.

Alastor closed the last open cabinet overhead before turning to face Charlie yet again. 

“Clearly he has.” He replied as his eyes flicked down to Charlie’s heavily bruised ankle. His eyes grew cold and dark for a moment before he looked back up and slipped his mask back on. “You really should be resting that ankle, dear.”

“What? No- I’m fine! I just need to use your phone.” The girl explained, kicking her sore ankle behind the other to better sell her narrative. Alastor seemed to busy himself with more food prep but the more Charlie pressed on the more he seemed to lose patience.

The girl clearly wasn’t catching on. 

“I can pay you back for your help once my friend comes to pick me up—” 

“Charlie.” He interrupted dropping what he was doing and stepping over to cup the clueless girl’s rosy cheeks in his palms, shushing her endless dabbling instantly. 

“That’s not going to happen.” He spoke calmly, despite the heaviness of what he was saying. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying here.”

Charlie didn’t say anything at first. Just blinking as she processed the soothing threat.

“Wha-” She attempted to speak before being interrupted again. Alastor sighed, pulling back as he explained himself.

“I refuse to let the world have it’s way with you, my dear. Helpless, defenseless and ripe for the ruining. Forgive me— but I hate to imagine what would become of you should I send you back to such a foul place. You’ll be better of here, I prom-”

“You’re wrong-!” Charlie suddenly shouted, finding her voice in the nightmare she found herself living. If her verbal assault affected him at all Alastor didn’t let it show, the man managing to maintain a collected composure.

“I know you’re scared but you’ll adapt. I assure you that you’re safer here.”

“No...” Charlie cried, tears springing from her eyes as they flickered in the direction Alastor had entered from. “No!”

Charlie didn’t give the monster another second before she sprinted off, finding herself booking it down a long narrow hallway. Blazing past a number of mounted animal heads and wall ornaments in the process.

“Charlie.” She heard Alastor call out from behind her, his voice sounding more disappointed than angry.

The distressed girl threw herself at the front door as soon as she could, a brief glimpse of relief flashing before her eyes until she failed to pry it open. Her heart dropped.

“No, no, no!” The girl panicked, looking up at the series of various bolt locks and latches between her and escape. She didn’t even make it through the first lock before she felt herself being lifted off her feet and spun around in the opposite direction.

“That’s enough of that. Come along.” Alastor warned, dividing his attention briefly to assure the locks were in their proper place despite her tampering, nevermind the terrified woman squirming in his arms.

“Let go of me! Let go-!” Charlie shrieked, weak hands clawing at Alastor’s hold on her waist. It wasn’t until Alastor caught onto the memo and released her that she fell forward, scuffing her knee on the hardwood floors in the process. She bit her lip to mask the pain and plucked herself up before Alastor could run to her aid.

Instead Charlie wasted no time booking it back the way she came. Running passed an unbothered Mimzy as she stormed back into the room she had woken up in. She locked the door and threw her back against it for good measure, sinking down to the carpet where she proceeded to cry into her arms hysterically.

Alastor sighed as he stepped back into the kitchen, now nursing a pounding migraine.

“Well— that went well.” He scoffed, taking a moment to collect himself before shifting back to usual his cheery demeanor. “I reckon it’s best to give her time to adjust. In the meantime, how about some jambalaya, my dear?”

Mimzy immediately flocked to his side excitedly. Planting a hearty smooch to his cheek in effort to lift his mood before following his lead with the recipe. However, despite the numerous things vying for his attention, their sizzling meal and Mimzy herself, Alastor couldn’t help the sinking feeling in his chest, knowing he had a girl sobbing her heart out in the next room. 

He supposed he truly was a monster. 

  


* * *

  


“If she doesn’t want to eat you shouldn’t push it, Alastor.” Mimzy pouted as she watched Alastor making a plate for the new girl. Her chubby cheeks puffing out as she huffed and puffed beside him.

“She hasn’t ate in two days, Mimzy dear. Not to mention she was already skin and bones before that.” The man replied, adding an extra scoop of jambalaya atop the bed rice.

“Such a waste.” Mimzy huffed as she tapped her foot in a heated fury, earning a mean spirited chuckle from Rosie who was washing dishes in the sink across the counter.

“As if he doesn’t feed you.” The older women snorted. Not looking up from the suds and bubbles in the sink.

“What did you just say?!” Mimzy seethed, ready to leap across the glossy countertop and tackle the old bat. Luckily, the referee was there to mediate.

“Ladies, please.” Alastor interrupted before the sound of two lionesses going at it could be heard. “It’s been quite a long day. Let’s not make it any longer shall we?”

Mimzy and Rosie both seemed to take a breath and bite their tongues, begrudgingly putting the scuffle behind them or at least saving it for another time.

“Off to bed with you, Mimzy. It’s late and we all know how cranky you get without your beauty sleep. Off you go, darling.” Alastor ushered the woman off in the direction of her bedroom with a firm hand on the small of her back. 

It was almost surprising when the short woman spun around and threw her arms around his neck, that is if she hadn’t done it so many nights before.

“Only if you come with me.” She pouted as she jerked the man towards her bedroom suggestively. Earning a sound of disgust from Rosie in the peanut gallery. Before Mimzy could send daggers her way Alastor spoke up, removing her choke hold from around his neck and placing a loving kiss atop of her golden locks.

“Another night perhaps.” He answered before swatting her on the tush playfully. “Go.”

“Fine.” Mimzy sulked, dragging her feet as she headed for the stairs. “You’re no fun.”

Alastor chuckled to himself but otherwise let the scorned woman stomp up the stairs with her arsenal of complaints. It wasn’t till he heard her bedroom door open and close that he finally took a breath, turning to face Rosie.

“You need any help, dear? Surely such talented hands have better things to be doing.”

“Hardly.” Rosie scoffed as she rolled her eyes at his flattery. “I’m almost done anyways. Go feed the girl. I’d like my sewing room back sooner rather than later.”

“Roger that.” Alastor smirked, procuring the porcelain plate as he approached the sewing room. He balanced the dinner plate in one hand as he fiddled with the key ring in his pocket, finding the proper key before unlocking the door and slowly pushing the door open. 

“Charlie, my dear?” He called out quietly, trying his absolute best to not alarm the poor girl. 

He kicked the door open the rest of the way as he stepped inside, whistling at the state of the poor room. Fabrics and spools of thread  
having been thrown across the room in a fit of rage. Cushions from the sofa laid on opposite sides of the room while the dressing mirror laid shattered on the ground. 

It seemed for a little thing she sure packed a punch. 

Alastor followed the trail of chaos till he found Charlie slumped over the window seat. Her butt on the floor while her arms remained folded under her head atop the seat’s cushion. She seemed to have fallen asleep somewhere in the madness. Her eyes still red and puffy from crying, a sight that pulled at Alastor’s cold, dead heart.

The man sighed, setting the dinner plate down on the nearby tea table. 

It would seem Mimzy was right, and the food would go to waste. He didn’t think he had it in himself to stir the snoozing girl. Instead with gentle hands he plucked the sleeping beauty up, carrying her bridal style as he maneuvered out of the ruined sewing quarters. Making mental notes to tidy it before Rosie noticed and crucified the poor girl herself.

He carried her up the stairs, shuffling into the vacant bedroom at the end of the hall. He did his best not to wake her with any sudden movements, just placing her under the bed’s satin covers and softly tucking her in.

The room itself was pretty bland, which was expected from a room that had remained empty for years. Still as Alastor sat at her bedside, gently humming a lullaby of sorts, he considered ways of making the small room a bit more welcoming for her. Interrupted when he heard a faint, incoherent mumbling coming from the comatose girl.

Her eyebrows were knotted together as she shifted uncomfortably in her bed, nuzzling deeper into the comfort of her pillow as a stray tear fell from her thick lashes.

“M... Mom... Dad no...” Alastor better registered the sorrow in her voice than what she was actually saying, still it no less stung to witness.

The man took a sharp breath, leaning over to turn off the small bedside lamp, placing a chaste kiss to the girl’s forehead in the process. 

She deserved better, and that’s what he planned to give her.


	2. On Thin Ice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, my lovelies! So— not a great week for the Charlastor fandom (at least if you been on Twitter, if not consider yourself lucky) BUT here’s hoping this can make it a bit better. Enjoy! 😌

  


Over the next two weeks Charlie realized how hopeless her situation was. 

No matter what she was under near constant surveillance in this wretched house. If not by Alastor himself then by one of the other girls he kept. Nearly every door between her and the outside world was behind a deadbolt lock only he had the keys too.

The one silver lining was that her anxiety could only last for so long before it eventually just rolled over and died. She no longer jumped out of her skin when someone else walked into the room, and she had slowly learned that at the very least these people weren’t a danger to her. After the first week she decided it would be best to make peace with the other members of the household, at least while she bought some time to come up with a plan. So, in part to avoid losing her mind in isolation, Charlie eventually braved beyond the safety of her bedroom to seek the company and solidarity of her fellow hostages.

At first, Rosie and Mimzy were far from welcoming and honestly they still weren’t two weeks in. Despite Charlie’s best efforts to play nice they both seemed to look down on her regardless. In the end, she settled for the small look of appreciation Rosie would give her for helping with mindless tasks around the house, and so long as Mimzy wasn’t growling in her general direction then Charlie considered that a success too.

It was midday when the three of them were gathered in Rosie’s sewing quarters. 

Charlie stood beside the woman’s sewing station, holding a heavy wad of fabric as Rosie fed it through the sewing machine. The two of them were working on a set of curtains for Charlie’s bedroom, they had settled on a mix of pink chiffon and cotton for the project. Charlie was surprised when Rosie not only accepted the suggestion from Alastor without any complaints, but also that she bothered to ask Charlie for her color preferences for the project.

Maybe Rosie was warming up to her after all? Somehow Charlie got the impression the older woman wasn’t one to wear her heart on her sleeve, so she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to tell. Trying to read Rosie was clearly a hopeless pursuit.

“Hey, Ditzy. While you're standing there staring off into space why don’t you turn up the radio for me?” Mimzy called from across the room where she rested on the antique sofa. The shorter woman continued flipping through an old magazine that she held above her head, her feet kicking playfully as she read along with a cheerful hum.

Charlie rolled her eyes at the woman’s cruel nickname for her but otherwise bit her tongue. Instead the doe eyed girl stepped over to the nearby radio placed atop an old armoire. She toggled up the volume with mild difficulty thanks to the heavy fabric in her arms, as well as the instability of the high heels she was given to wear.

She had grown to tune out the radio by this point. It was clear her tastes for music didn’t quite align with her roommates. Instead she tended to absorb herself in her own mind, considering all the possible ways she could try to escape, most of which were nothing more than ridiculous fever dreams of ideas. However, today an unmistakable voice sounded from the radio, catching her attention.

“Is that...Is that Alastor?” Charlie gawked, listening carefully to the boisterous radio announcer as he merrily reported the day’s weather forecast.

“Of course it’s him. Who else has a voice like sex?” Mimzy answered without so much as glancing Charlie’s way. Charlie felt her face light up with rosy hues from embarrassment. She’d cover her ears to block out the vulgarity if she didn’t have her hands full. Rosie on the other hand seemed unphased, like she had been tuning them out entirely. She briefly stopped her back stitch to shoot the plump woman a stern look.

“I thought Al specifically asked us not to listen to his radio station today, Mimzy.” She reminded the other women, who merely waved off the seamstress’s concerns.

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Besides—” Mimzy sighed dreamily as she looked up from her magazine. “It’s his own fault for having such a heavenly voice.”

“All I’m saying is it’s on you if he finds out.” Rosie lectured as she went back to sewing. Using the mechanical sound to strategically drown out Mimzy’s verbal backlash.

“Oh, hush! Can you not be a stick in the mud for one second—”

Charlie had long since tuned them both out, her focus shifting to Alastor’s voice as he seemed to have moved on to a daily news segment.

“—another family in mourning after a fourth gruesome murder was discovered this weekend. Police are suspecting it to be the most recent attack of a believed serial killer terrorizing New Orleans.”

Charlie looked at the other girls curiously, wondering what their take on the report might be. When their expressions remained disinterested and unphased she pouted, assuming they weren’t really listening. 

“In other news, the Magne family and friends continue their search for their missing daughter, Charlotte Magne, who was kidnapped from her family estate two weeks ago, on January 23rd.”

Charlie gasped, the giant ton of fabric falling from her grasp as she spun around and flocked over to the radio.

“Ugh! Charlie!” Rosie squawked behind her, but Charlie was far too busy drowning her out with the radio to pay her any mind.

Alastor’s animated voice had been replaced briefly with the recording of a news interview. Charlie clutched her hands over the radio possessively as she clung onto it for dear life. Her heart rate soared when she heard her father’s voice over the static radio.

“—We just want our daughter to come back home safely. We’re offering a fifty thousand dollar reward for any information leading to her or the sick bastard who did this.” Her father spoke. Sappy emotions never really were his strong suit but exhaustion and anger remained clear in his voice regardless.

Charlie shrank into herself, as mixed emotions consumed and confused her. She loved her father, despite how sick and twisted he really was, she couldn’t deny how much she just wanted to run into his arms, to hear him promise that everything would be ok. What she wouldn’t give to hear him sing bad polka music and struggle to compliment her dreams and ambitions again. 

“Charlie— sweetheart,” Her mother’s voice suddenly called out over the radio, causing the girl to gasp sharply. “If you’re out there and can hear this, just know your mom is here for you, baby. I’m not going anywhere. I... I know we haven’t been perfect, far from it in fact, but I promise when we find you things are gonna change, so till then I need you to be strong and raise hell, my love. I’ll see you soon.”

Charlie didn't even notice that she had started crying till the tears came barreling down her face. She wiped her cheeks frantically with the back of her sleeve, leaving behind a triumphant smile.

Her mother’s confidence was infectious. 

After weeks of feeling her will to fight slowly diminishing she once again felt it swell up inside her with a new found passion. Gone were her doubts and concerns.

One way or another, she was getting out of this hellish place.

Before Alastor could chime in with more details on the case the radio was abruptly cut off. Charlie looked frazzled and confused before she noticed Mimzy standing by the wall outlet, the radio’s power cord unplugged and in her hand.

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.” Mimzy simply said, her face flushed with regret for not listening to Alastor’s request.

It was too late though. Charlie’s mood could not be soured, she was freshly unshackled and ready to bare her teeth. The young woman roughly pushed past the bitter wench, booking it up the stairs and into her bedroom.

After all, the Magne’s didn’t take shit from anyone.

  


* * *

  


She was laying in wait.

If she learned anything from her father it was how to handle a bad situation, and this certainly was a bad situation. If she wanted to make it home to crucify him personally then she’d have to wait for her window of opportunity.

She’d never guess that Mimzy would be the one to give it to her on a silver plate. 

“Alzie-poo, I’m bored. Entertain me won’t you?” Groaned the overdramatic beauty as she threw herself into Alastor’s lap at the breakfast table one day.

Charlie busied herself by counting the Cheerios in her cereal bowl as she munched quietly beside the two. She shifted anxiously in her seat, feeling like the awkward third wheel she was. As she pushed her breakfast around her bowl she prayed that Rosie would finish making her morning tea and join her in her suffering.

“I’m sorry— I’m afraid I don’t know a man named _Alzie-poo_.” Alastor soon responded, folding the morning newspaper up after realizing that reading it was a pointless endeavor in Mimzy’s presence.

“Alastor...” The woman pouted as she pulled at the man’s collar in a theatrical display. “It’s still snowing isn’t it? Couldn’t we go outside and enjoy it.”

The man offered a brief chuckle at her suggestion as he reached for his morning coffee.

“You’d be frozen solid in minutes, Mimzy dear.”

“Wow! Sounds like it wouldn’t take too long then.” Mimzy beamed, kicking her feet excitedly as she summoned forth her best puppy dog face. She leaned in till her breast pressed against the radio host suggestively. “Pretty please?” 

Charlie had rapidly regained interest in their conversation upon the mention of the outside world. She was shamelessly side eyeing to two as she shovelled down empty spoonfuls of milk, only barely pretending to still be eating.

Alastor’s eyes lingered on the woman’s chest, and Charlie couldn’t even blame him. Those things were impressive. Not to mention Mimzy was practically shoving them down his throat. Still, it seemed his mind was partially elsewhere as he considered her request. 

Charlie was on the brink of her seat waiting for his answer with wide eyes when he suddenly looked up to meet her gaze.

Charlie was pretty sure her soul had left her body after that. She must have looked like some creep just staring at them with her mouth full in utter fascination. Mimzy was practically straddling the man and fucking him with her eyes right infront of her. The flustered girl turned into a tomato before she looked away in horror, steam fuming from her ears. She decided to play dumb to her eavesdropping, taking a sudden and immense interest in a speck of dust floating in the air.

_Where the fuck was Rosie?!_

Alastor merely scoffed under his breath at the bashful girl’s antics. After taking a moment to roll the idea around in his head he eventually nodded in agreement.

“Why not.” He answered finally. Lifting the voluptuous minx off his lap as he gathered the dirty dishes. A humored grin stretching across his face when he saw Charlie’s shameful expression while he collected her empty bowl.

“Really?!” Mimzy squealed, spinning around the room triumphantly. The frilly fringe of her dress cascading around her in a gorgeous display. “I’ll go get my coat!”

“We’re going out?” Rosie chimed in curiously as Mimzy danced passed her through the kitchen. The giddy woman now singing loudly and unapologetically as she spiraled out the room.

“Just for a bit. I imagine a little fresh air would do us all some good. That is if you care to join us?” Alastor explained.

“I’ll get my coat.” Rosie simply answered, the older woman following Mimzy’s lead upstairs as Charlie walked into the kitchen.

Suddenly Charlie found herself standing there alone with Alastor in the middle of the desserted kitchen. She clasped her hands together in front of her as she balanced precariously on her heels. She had been desperately trying to avoid being caught alone with her kidnapper since she arrived, now she found herself awkwardly fidgeting next to him as she avoided eye contact. In contrast, the man’s cheery demeanor seemed unphased and unbothered by her lone company.

“Charlie— darling, I don’t imagine Rosie’s had time to make you a proper coat, has she?” The man suddenly spoke up, leaning down slightly to meet the girl’s downward gaze.

“Uh, no. It hasn’t really been a concern.” Charlie explained with a dry scoff, not realizing the potential passive aggressive undertone in her statement till it was too late, though Alastor seemed to pay it no mind.

“I suppose not.” He agreed, “You’ll have to settle for one of mine then.”

He walked into the hallway, and reluctantly Charlie followed behind him as she knew he expected. The nervous girl stared wide eyed as he plucked a thick wool coat off the nearby rack and threw it over her shoulders.

“You might be swimming in it but at least it’ll keep you warm.”

“Thank you.” Charlie found herself saying to her kidnapper, her voice shifting to a whisper when she thought better too late.

Alastor said nothing, and for that she was grateful, instead he buttoned up her coat in silence. Only the soft shuffling of fabric filled the dead air. After finishing he seemed to decide on one last touch, weaving a thick red scarf around her neck.

“There. You’re good to go, my dear.” He finished with a small but no less dazzling smile. Charlie bowed her head in a form of silent acknowledgment. 

As he proceeded to pull on his own coat, Charlie found herself wandering over to the hall mirror. She scoffed in amusement at her reflection. 

“—So mismatched. Rosie will be appalled.”

Somehow, despite the mirror, she was unprepared to find Alastor standing right behind her when she turned around. A small sharp gasp, barely audible, as she forced herself to meet his gaze. She was never more aware of how much he towered over her then in that moment.

“Nonsense,” He smiled softly. “You look adorable, angel.”

Charlie was ready to deflect the compliment with a graceless dialogue only to be frozen solid as she felt the man’s lips press against her cheek. It had just been a quick peck, more paternal then anything but no less rattling.

Charlie’s eyes flung open. She stared straight ahead, wide eyed and horrified by the change of atmosphere only she seemed to notice. Regardless, she kept a tight lipped smile on her face in an attempt to conceal her emotions.

“—I should get you some proper snow shoes as well.” The man casually noted as he maneuvered around her. Calling to the women upstairs to hurry things along before the sky grew cloudy and they lost precious sunlight.

Charlie said nothing after that, just nodding to herself as if to confirm that had really just happened. 

For the first time she rejoiced when Mimzy came skipping down the stairs and into the fray, immediately designating herself as Alastor’s arm candy for the afternoon. She siphoned his attention like a leech.

It seemed the woman was at least good for something.

  


* * *

  


Alastor had led them out the backdoor, and for the first time since she arrived Charlie was able to get an idea of where she was being kept. She was prepared to cling onto every detail for her future police report but as they continued walking one thing became clear. 

This man lived in the middle of fucking nowhere.

Aside from being able to identify a crooked red house and a shotty looking shed in the backyard she was left with not much else. No street signs or neighbors to be found. Just miles of trees, snow and a thin lake. 

She bit her lip as she stared daggers into the back of Alastor’s head, him and Mimzy walking a couple yards ahead of her and Rosie. 

This was not what Charlie had hope for to say the least.

“You see that?” Charlie snapped back to reality, ditching her pessimistic thoughts upon hearing Rosie’s voice beside her.

“Huh?” Charlie questioned dazedly, earning a harsh shushing sound in response.

“Shut. Up.” Rosie hissed in a low voice, her dark eyes glued on Alastor as she spoke between tight lips. “You see that signal tower across the lake?”

“N-No?” Charlie answered quietly, squinting as she scanned the horizon.

“Between the trees, it’s hidden.” Rosie offered, refusing to make a scene by pointing towards it. After a moment Charlie’s eyes grew two sizes upon spotting a faint metallic shine among the tree line.

“I see it!” She whispered victoriously.

“There’s an old gas station just north of that tower.” Rosie explained in a clear hurry. “Mimzy mentioned it once after Alastor brought her into town with him.” 

Charlie felt her heart pounding away in her chest with this new information in her arsenal. Still she couldn’t help but wonder.

“Why are you telling me this?”

Rosie merely shrugged as she glanced towards the girl, a well trained poker face lining her stunning features.

“I think it’s information you can put to better use than I.”

Charlie stopped walking, the others carrying on without her. Alastor and Mimzy both were too lost in conversation to hear the lack of footsteps behind them, while Rosie willingly turned a blind eye and shifted her focus to her shuffling boots.

This was it.

The adrenaline was pulsing through Charlie’s veins as her eyes remained glued to the signal tower in the distance. It was now or never. Time to run like hell. Without another thought the younger woman peeled off the path, taking off like a bolt in the direction of the lake and tower.

“Charlie!” She heard Alastor shout behind her not long after. 

She knew he was no doubt gaining on her despite her lucky head start, but she feared that if she tried to go around the lake he’d tackle her into the snowbank before she could get anywhere near the tower. She had an idea but it was admittedly ballsy, luckily she was high on hope and adrenaline. 

Charlie booked it till she was sliding across the frozen lake’s surface. She squealed as she was propelled twenty feet inward across the slippery ice. Only then did her hurried movements cease, replaced with caution in fear of losing her balance and cracking her skull open on the solid lake.

“Charlie, stop!” Alastor demanded, coming to a screeching halt himself just before reaching the ice. “Charlie— That ice isn’t thick enough to be walking on! Come back.” 

“I think I’ll take my chances. Thank you very much!”

“Charlie, I’m serious!” The man cautioned through clenched teeth.

When Charlie felt safe enough she looked back at the nagging man. She noticed for the first time the missing smile on Alastor’s face, in its place was a look of utter fear as he watched on in horror.

Charlie felt a prang of guilt in her chest upon realizing that she had been the cause, but it only served to anger her more. She didn’t owe this man anything after all, she was his victim not the other way around! In her fuming state she picked up her pace across the thin, creaking ice. She was more than ready to put all this madness behind her.

“Oh good, maybe she’ll drown.” Mimzy commented as she and Rosie caught up behind them. The woman’s nasally voice grating on Charlie’s ear and propelling her further into the lake.

“Mimzy!” Alastor snapped harshly in the other woman’s direction. Charlie flinched at the anger in his voice, still scooting her way across the pond with reckless abandon.

“Charlie, please!” Alastor tried again, his voice suddenly soft and nurturing as his focus shifted back to Charlie. Charlie didn’t need to turn around to know Mimzy was probably stewing with bitterness behind her. “You’ll never make it to the other side and if you go much further I don’t know if I can save you.” 

“From my experience— I don’t think I’d want you to.” She scoffed, cruising full steam ahead. Finally, she could see the light at the end of the tunnel. She was confident that she’d get to the other side, that she’d be home again before dinner.

At least until she lost her footing. 

Charlie gasped in horror as she fell hard on her ass. The deafening crack of splintering ice that followed was immediately sobering, killing her dreams on impact.

On the brightside, soon she’d be too dead to hear ‘I told you so.’ 

With a blood curdling scream the lake swallowed her whole. She thrashed around in it’s darkness, praying for mercy as the icy tomb rapidly siphoned her strength and energy. 

To be honest, it was no doubt an embarrassing way to go. Regardless, she was proud of it. At least in the last moments of her life she finally grew a backbone. When her body grew too exhausted to continue fighting she welcomed death and he came forth vigorously.

Charlie didn’t realize she had been pulled from her watery grave till she found herself coughing up a lung full of freezing water, her eyes fluttering open to see the sun beaming overhead. She only distantly recognized three blurry figures shuffling around her. 

She blinked again and when she opened her eyes she was being hauled back inside that god damn house. She groaned through blue lips as she was placed in front of the living room’s fireplace. Her vision and hearing coming in and out.

“Rosie, blankets! Mimzy, hot water!” Alastor ordered from what sounded like another dimension, as he haphazardly threw two wooden logs into the fireplace.

Rosie was already tearing through the hall closet before the man had even said anything, piling mounts of blankets in her arms. Mimzy, on the other hand, had other concerns besides resurrecting a dead girl.

“Mimzy!” Alastor finally snapped. His stern gaze was the only thing capable of kicking the hardheaded women into gear. In the end, she bit her cheek as she bowed her head submissively, running off towards the kitchen to fetch the water.

“Stay with us, Charlie.” Alastor spoke again, his voice sounding staticy and distant. “Don’t fall asleep. Don’t close your eyes. Understand?”

“Mmm.” Was all Charlie could vocalize as she watched the blurry silhouette in front of her ignite the dry wood with a lighter, the fire’s much desired warmth causing her to moan euphorically.

“Here—” Rosie spoke, handing the stack of blankets to Alastor as she stripped Charlie out of her soaking clothes. Charlie still so out of it that she couldn’t even feel bashful about being seen in her birthday suit.

Rosie threw a warm blanket around Charlie’s shoulders as soon as she could. Immediately Charlie’s eyes rolled back into her head in sheer bliss. A satisfied murmur escaping her lips as she pulled the soft material tight around her.

“Charlie, don’t close your eyes.” Alastor reminded, shaking the woman till she stirred. Drunken eyes looking up at him while blinking long and sluggishly.

When Mimzy came with the water Alastor moved the shivering girl till she was laying up against his chest. She rejoiced when a warm rag was pressed against her forehead, surprised Mimzy hadn’t made the water purposely cold out of spite.

“Charlie—”

“Hmm?”

“Keep your eyes open, dear.”

Were they closed? Was that really a problem? Surely just a short nap would be ok.

“Charlie-!”

The voices grew murky as she let go and allowed herself to sink.

  


* * *

  


“Al, you look half dead.” 

“How ironic.”

Mimzy pulled a long face at Alastor’s response. She fixed him with a stern look, more concerned than anything else. 

Alastor had been stuck to Charlie’s side late into the night. The house now zapped of all it’s light apart from the gentle brewing fireplace. He had refused to let the girl and her cocoon of blankets out of his arms. Having carried her over to sit in his lap as he laid back in the living room’s recliner sometime ago. He had long since zoned out, staring wordlessly at the slivers of light that danced across the ceiling.

His mind playing an endless stream of what if scenarios. What if Charlie had really hurt herself? What if he hadn’t been able to save her? What if they both had drowned in that lake? What would have happened to Mimzy and Rosie then?

His fingers combed through the young girl’s hair. He found the motion just as soothing to himself as he intended it to be for her. The sound of Charlie’s soft breathing was somehow the only thing keeping him grounded.

Boy, did he need to go hunting again soon. It was the only way to ease the pestering anxiety and silence the horrific thoughts. After today he wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep properly if not.

“The girl’s still breathing ain’t she? You’ve been watching her for hours now. You need a break.” Mimzy pursed her lips together as she stood in front of the man’s footrest. The hellbent woman shifted her weight from one leg to the other as her hands rested on her hips. 

“Mimzy—” Alastor began to dismiss the woman for the third time that hour before he was interrupted.

“I think she’s right.” Rosie chimed from her spot perched on the sofa to Alastor’s side. A cup of tea steeping beside her and an embroidery project in her hands. “I know you feel responsible for her but really she’s fine now, Al. It’s best to just let her rest.”

Alastor seemed to take the advice to heart after hearing it from Rosie. Glancing down at the tiny, helpless girl snoozing away in his arms. The color had long since returned to her cheeks, a healthy glow that could light up any room. Her previously wet locks had dried into soft waves by now. She really was a stunning sight.

“I suppose your right.” He relented with a sigh, rising from his chair and leaving Charlie behind in it’s cozy embrace. The girl happily nuzzled deeper into its plush comfort in his absence.

Alastor stepped out of the room, letting his jumbled thoughts fill the silence. The man slipped into the slim hallway where he returned his coat to the rack by the door. He was fiddling with his shirt cuffs absentmindedly in front of the hall mirror. He looked up at his reflection with tired eyes, watching as it’s image began to slowly distort as if there was a glitch in reality. He remained unphased as he witnessed antlers emerging out of his silhouette, an unnatural smile cracking sharply from ear to ear forming a wicked yellow grin, and his eyes glowing— until all he saw was red.

The haunting image before him vanished only when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist. His glazed over eyes shifting to find Mimzy smiling up at him in the mirror’s reflection. 

“Al..? You know if you’re stressed— Well, I just want to let you know that I’m here for you if you need anything.” She rambled as she struggled to express what she meant. The short blonde woman spun a curl out of her face as she bashfully kicked her feet together. 

Mimzy buckled beneath Alastor’s sharp, distant gaze. Even as he eyed her up and down his nagging thoughts consumed his attention. His worst fears eating him alive as his mind begged him to suppress them, to bury them with the dead.

He clenched his teeth, unable to shake the haunting mental image of Charlie dead at the bottom of a lake.

_How annoying._

“But really, just let me kno—” This time Mimzy was interrupted as Alastor pulled her around and sweeped the tiny woman off her feet, pushing her up onto the table in front of the mirror. His mouth claimed hers in a hungry frenzy as his hands slid up her thighs, his nails digging into her stockings as they wormed their way up her dress skirt.

Mimzy squealed in shock but very quickly threw herself into the kiss regardless. Her arms winding around the man’s neck for support as he pushed her further down the mirror with the fury of his kiss. His dark reflection consuming her entirely as she sank down blissfully. Mimzy arched her back, pushing herself closer into his heated embrace. The two only prying themselves away from one another when they ran out of air.

“Mimzy, my dear. You’re perfect as always aren’t you?” Alastor smiled for the first time in hours making the woman in his arms turn to putty. Her blue bell eyes shimmering with adoration as she looked up at him breathlessly. 

“Perhaps, tonight you could provide me a much needed distraction. Hmm? My darling belle...” Alastor hummed, his attention turning to the woman’s neck— knowing full well it was her weak spot as he trailed a series of love bites just beneath her jawline.

Mimzy giggled at the ticklish affection, nodding excessively in response as she bit her bottom lip in excitement.

“Whatever you need.” She whispered with a small smile. Squealing in pure joy when the man proceeded to haul her over his shoulder, swatting her tush playfully as he carried her upstairs. 

He locked Mimzy’s bedroom door behind them hoping it’d help to muffle the coming sounds, though with the lungs Mimzy had Alastor seriously had his doubts.

  


* * *

  


“I know you’re awake.” Rosie chimed as soon as the coast was clear. Throwing a small pillow to stir the newly resurrected girl.

Charlie sputtered, her movements sluggish as she regained her strength. She sat up in the recliner, pillow in her hands. Listening to the gentle sound of Rosie’s hand embroidery along with Mimzy’s muffled moans coming from upstairs.

Charlie blinked as her thoughts became clear and she rejoined the land of the living.

“Are they..?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t even hear what I was gonna say.” Charlie argued, procuring a pointed look from the older woman as she pulled her needle through the canvas fabric.

“You were going to ask if they were fucking.”

Charlie’s face flushed red as she looked away in embarrassment.

“Well, not exactly but close enough I guess.” She mumbled under her breath as she sank into her bundle of blankets. Her eyes shot up as she remembered her priorities.

“You... You helped me!” Charlie sprung up in the chair, looking towards the seamstress with wide eyes of admiration.

“Actually, I almost killed you.” The woman corrected, eyebrows knotting together on her perfect face as she kept her gaze glued on her stitching.

“Why?”

The woman seemed vaguely annoyed by the question but still Charlie was at the edge of her seat waiting for her response.

“I thought it’d be entertaining.” Rosie finally answered, and Charlie couldn’t lie, her words stung.

“You...You didn’t think I’d make it, did you?”

“Honey, I didn’t even think you’d make it to the lake.”

Charlie’s face swelled red in embarrassment as she fought back tears, she wouldn’t give anyone in this place the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

“So what, you were just getting your sick kicks?”

“Not just mine.” Rosie responded, side eyeing the girl. “As horrified as he was, that was still the most animated I’ve ever seen Alastor.” 

“So, you’re both disturbed. Aren’t you lucky to have each other.” Charlie threw her hands up in defeat before falling back into the chair dejectedly.

“Don’t be dramatic— I did you a favor.” Rosie snapped at the girl, waving her sewing needle at her expressively.

“The more entertaining that man finds you. The more he’ll favor you.” The older woman explained, her voice turning quieter and more solemn. “You’ll need that if you want to get out of this place.”

“If that’s true then why are you still here? If you know all this why haven’t you escaped?” Charlie interrogated, reluctantly turning back to face the cold woman.

“I have no interest in leaving.” Rosie answered with a shrug.

Charlie proceeded to stare at the woman like had grown two heads. The idea that anyone would willingly want to be here was too baffling to imagine.

“Alastor saved me from my abusive husband a few years ago. There’s nothing for me to go back to even if I wanted to and for that I’m grateful.” Rosie explained briefly, it seemed obvious that she didn’t like telling that story as she quickly glossed over it. “Plus he’s good company. I find him to be quite the conversationalist.”

Charlie shot the woman an unimpressed look. Good company? Were they talking about the same man?

“However— it’s not lost on me that he also possesses a rather warped perspective of the world.” Rosie continued, her explanation sounding analytical and removed from emotion. “He believes women are vulnerable and need to be protected— evidently whether they want it or not. I resent that.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know.” Rosie admitted with a tired sigh, as if she had sent the last five years of her life searching for that answer herself. “What I do know is he lacks the same empathy for men, and when he snaps he becomes someone else entirely.”

Charlie had a thousand questions spinning in her head but she quickly settled on the one she thought could lead to her ticket home.

“You said I should win his favor, right? How?”

Rosie shot the young girl a humored smirk, raising an eyebrow. 

“How do you win any man’s favor?” 

As if on queue Mimzy’s moans from upstairs grew uncomfortably loud and impossible to ignore. Charlie’s head was already spinning and this advice did nothing to help it. She pulled her blanket over her head in an attempt to hide herself from this cruel reality.

_Drowning would have been easier._

“Luckily, Alastor isn’t the type of man to force himself on a woman. If you don’t want to sleep with him he won’t push it. Hell— I told him from the very beginning that as much as I enjoyed his company tall, dark and psychopathic wasn’t really my type.” Rosie explained, and Charlie released a breath she was unaware she had been holding onto. At least she had one less thing to worry about.

“That being said, Mimzy has had no doubt many more windows of opportunity than I.” Rosie reasoned, reaching forward to pluck her steaming cup of tea from the end table, giving it a sip. “Though I don’t imagine she’d be overly fond of the competition you’d pose.”

“I’m doomed.” Charlie decided flatly, dead eyes glazing over as she stared into the crackling fireplace.

“Well— if you don’t want that kind of attention I’d say you’re on the right track.” Rosie snarked with a giggle. “Alastor seems to treat you more like a child than a woman. How old did you say you were again? Sixteen?”

“I’m twenty-two.” Charlie answered with a dry huff. 

“Oh, my dear, you belong in a cradle.” Rosie responded with a laugh. “Still— who knows. One should never underestimate the value of good platonic company. You can always try appealing to his other sensibilities I suppose.”

His other sensibilities? Like what? Kidnapping women, slow jazz and a nineteen-twenties fashion sense? Charlie couldn’t fake an interest in any of those things if she tried. He’d see right through her a mile away. She had to find something though, something to peak his interest and keep his attention. 

If it was the only way out of this place she had to at least try. 

“Though if you ever find yourself daring or desperate enough, I reckon you could turn this whole house on it’s head.” The older woman theorized with a humored smirk across her face. “After all, he definitely seems to have a thing for pretty blondes with big tits.”

Charlie instinctively looked down at her breast. Her cheeks turning red as she pulled the blanket closer in an attempt to hide her assets. 

Damn her mother’s genetics.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, please let me know what you think down below! It’s thanks to your encouraging comments I was able to finished this chapter as quickly as I did. 
> 
> Also, don’t let any assholes on Twitter ruin your fun shipping. Whether it’s from the creator or otherwise. 🙃
> 
> Until next time, see you! 🙏🏻✨


	3. On Death's Door

  


Charlie had no idea how to impress a man.

To her credit she didn’t think Alastor was any normal man. His sensibilities were vapidly different from the college fuck boys she was used to. After a month of trying to win his favor she had plateaued horrifically.

She didn’t understand why but it was obvious how differently he viewed her compared to the other women he kept. There just seemed to be mutual respect between him and them, but when it came to Charlie she was practically babied. He felt the need to guide her more than the need to really listen to her.

She cursed her mediocre personality.

“Charlie, be a dear and fetch me the tenderloin would you?” Alastor requested from his station in front of a sizzling skillet one night.

“Sure...” Charlie responded, the answer quickly dying on her lips when she heard Mimzy steam roll over their conversation, claiming it as her own. The dejected girl merely sighed in response.

Today she had found herself chopping away on a cutting board after she offered to help Alastor prepare dinner. She wasn’t a bad cook but she wasn’t an impressive one either. She knew this plan was a bust too when he soon started singing along with Mimzy to the radio, sautéing vegetables as he nodded his head to the music. He was so disinterested in her that he had moved on to Mimzy.

“Here you go.” Charlie murmured, dropping the meat on the counter beside Alastor with a defeated passion.

“Ah— thank you, darling!” Alastor beamed unphased before turning back to flirt with Mimzy again, the stocky flapper positively basking in his attention.

Charlie returned to her cutting station as well as the drawing board. It was clear cooking was a flop.

As she struggled to cut the sweet potatoes Alastor had given her she couldn’t help but stew in her own misery. If she was more like Mimzy she’d demand the man’s attention with her presence alone. Making him swoon over her with boisterous dance moves and show tune singing. If she was more like Rosie she’d simply command his respect with her sheer witt itself. Ensnaring him with clever, thought-provoking conversations. Unfortunately, she was just Charlie, and Charlie was utterly unremarkable.

As she finished cutting the last of the vegetables she zoned out, her gaze falling to the flickering metal of the kitchen knife in her hands. Her eyes grew wide as she looked over her shoulder to check for any witnesses. 

For once she was happy to find that Alastor thoroughly distracted.

Without further hesitation she swiped the knife off the cutting mat and folded it up into her waist band. She hoped she could use it to try and pick the locks later.

“—I was considering going hunting next weekend, should the weather allow it.” Charlie suddenly heard Alastor proclaim as he expertly tossed the contents of the cooking skillet in the air, catching it before it could fall far.

Hunting? 

Charlie’s ears perked up as she spun around in her stool. She leaned in, eagerly eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Do what you need to do.” Mimzy responded, with a shrug. 

“What are you hunting?” Charlie suddenly asked, immediately summoning both their attention to her corner of the kitchen. They almost looked shocked, as if they had forgotten she was even there.

How sweet. 

Mimzy and Alastor shared a look before Mimzy turned away, almost fighting a smile, leaving the chef to answer the question himself.

“Elk.” He eventually explained. His answer was short and uninteresting just as he intended, but Charlie eagerly pressed on regardless.

“Could I join you?” She asked, flocking to his side with her hands clasp together in front of her chest. Big pleading eyes looking up at him through thick, batting lashes.

A jaded scoff cut in as Mimzy turned back around after listening in.

“Yeah, Alastor. Why don’t you give the lassie a gun?” She mused, walking over to rest her arms against the counter top in front of the man. Her blue eyes shimmering flirtatiously as she rested her chin against her palm.

“That’s not what I meant.” Charlie snapped through gritted teeth. “My father used to take me hunting. I just find it— fun is all.”

It was partially true. Her father did take her hunting each year since she was twelve, but she wasn’t sure fun was the right word to describe it. She found it ghastly and brutish. Why kill an innocent creature just to parade its head around like some kind of trophy? Regardless, she was at least knowledgeable on the topic. Maybe she could impress the man with her technique, after all she had one mean cow call.

Alastor’s eyes flickered over to hers, humor dancing behind their dark color.

“Hunting isn’t usually a very feminine activity, is it?” He hummed, his focus shifting back to their meal, stirring the delicious smelling food to keep it from burning.

As chivalrous and charming as the man was it seemed his old fashioned preferences teetered on the cusp of misogyny at times. A fact that Charlie resented.

“I suppose not.” The girl pouted, her eyebrows drawing together in offense. “Though I don’t suppose cooking is overly masculine either.”

“Ha!” Alastor laughed boisterously, his eyes wide and alight with peaked interest. “Fine, I’ll take you.”

“Al!” Mimzy erupted, throwing her arms up in a hissy fit one that Alastor luckily ignored. Instead the man took to wagging his spatula towards the young girl as he continued.

“No gun—” He clarified with a wicked grin and raised eyebrows. “But you can come. You can show me what daddy taught you.”

“Really?!” Charlie squealed in excitement as she bounced in place. When Alastor nodded and laughed in the affirmative Charlie was on cloud nine.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Charlie praised, suddenly surging forth and throwing her arms around the man. She sighed happily for a moment while she sank into the joyous hug. Alastor’s eyes were wide in shock but regardless he smiled, gently patting her back with his free hand. 

It seemed after a moment Charlie realized how out of character her behavior seemed, now shying away from the hug as quickly as she had leaped into it.

“Uh, I’m just gonna go wash up a little before dinner.” Charlie explained as she inched towards the exit. “Excuse me!”

With that the girl was gone, taking off like a bat out of hell as she ran up the stairs. In her place, Mimzy approached Alastor’s side, the humming chef appearing to be in even higher spirits now than before. She folded her arms together as she pouted up at the man.

“You weren’t planning on hunting elk, were you?” Mimzy questioned in a small but no less stern voice, catching the man’s gaze.

He laughed.

“Nope.” Alastor’s eyes squinted as his cheeks rose in a guilty grin. “—But I suppose now I am.”

  


* * *

  


The days that followed were quiet— like a calm before a storm.

The girls were gathered in the living room, each of them silently entertaining themselves as they enjoyed the fire Alastor had built. Eagerly they awaited the warm beverages he had offered to make them. The gentle clacking of ceramic mugs echoed from the kitchen as he set the kettle on the gas stove, toggling the heat up before moving to look for Rosie’s tea bags in the cabinet.

Charlie was sitting on the floor of the living room, doodling away in the notebook Alastor had gifted her when the cozy mood suddenly flipped like a switch.

A sudden ringing reverberated through the house— the unmistakable chime of a doorbell.

Charlie’s head immediately shot up from her notebook. Looking around dazzled and confused, she attempted to read the faces of the other girls. Even they looked unsure of what to do, as if this was the first time they’d heard such a foreboding sound.

A hurried clattering sound came from the kitchen as Alastor dropped what he was doing and rushed to the front door.

Charlie looked back to the girls. They seemed almost frozen in place, afraid to so much as make a sound. Charlie on the other hand felt her heart racing in her chest, begging her to take advantage of this opportunity however she could.

The young girl sprang to her feet, quickly booking it across the room.

“Charlie, don’t-!” Both women harshly whispered behind her, but Charlie was unyielding. Rosie cursed under her breath as she raced after the girl, stopping whenever she turned sharply into the hallway that was a straight shot to the front door. 

The woman refused to take another step and risk being seen herself. Instead she continued to try whisper sense into the wayward child, but it was obvious her warning fell on deaf ears.

“—We didn’t order anything.” Charlie heard Alastor’s cold voice snap, from the far end of the hall. As she drew closer she could hear an unfamiliar voice answering back.

“Oh— no, sir! I’m not a delivery person. I was just hoping you could spare a minute for our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”

Alastor looked the stranger up and down, his expression turning almost amused.

“As tempting as that is—” He replied flatly, about to shut the door in the man’s face before he suddenly interjected.

“Hello there, ma’am!” The stranger called out merrily, his body leaning around Alastor in an attempt to better see the girl behind his shoulder.

Charlie stood in the middle of the foyer looking absolutely lost for words. Her mouth was left gaping like a fish as she hesitantly inched closer to the two men at the door. 

“H...Hello-” She attempted to greet the man only to be swiftly interrupted.

“Charlie.” Came Alastor’s voice— a warning. “Don’t.”

The girl instinctively shrank back into herself despite her initial determination. His eyes looked wild, wide with an ominous warning that zapped the courage from her bones. She had never heard Alastor’s voice so void of patience and animation. It sent a chill up her spine and screamed at her to turn back, but she couldn’t. Her body frozen in fear, as she helplessly looked to the stranger in desperation. Her eyes silently pleading for the man’s help as her voice failed her.

The man’s eyes seemed to narrow suspiciously upon hearing Charlie’s name, and his apparent concern grew deeper as he processed her strange behavior. Nervous eyes darting between her and the sketchy home owner as if decoding the situation right there in front of them. Charlie could tell, she could read it in his eyes and her hope soared.

He recognized her.

She’d have to thank god later for the media coverage her case received. She kept her mouth shut, hoping the man would quietly take this information to the police and not alert her captor that he had caught on in the process. She looked over at Alastor, praying he was none the wiser. 

That’s where her luck seemed to run out.

Alastor’s expression had long turned sour, his usual smile turned into a wicked scowl, as his nails dug into the wood of the door frame. His teeth clenched tightly behind his lips as he watched the man before him with half lidded eyes.

After a moment of hesitation the air was filled with the faithful man’s anxious laugh. The stranger stepped backwards off the creaky front porch and onto the beaten path once more.

“Haha— Well, I better get going.” He rambled nervously, as he briefly lost his footing in the snow. “I’d hate to bother you good folk any longer. Uh, h-have a good day!”

Charlie had crept closer as she watched the man turn and high tail it towards the car parked in the street. She knew she had to be beaming with triumphant delight. She felt on top of the world. Confidence oozing off every inch of her.

_She was getting out of this place._

“Charlie—” Alastor suddenly spoke again, immediately sending the girl crashing back down to earth. She sheepishly looked up at him from under her lashes. He did not meet her gaze, his eyes instead fixed on the man running down his driveway as he pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Not that I’d trust you to listen— but do _stay inside._ ”

Without another word the man had stepped out the front door, locking it behind him in haste.

“No-!” Charlie screeched, throwing her weight against the door and jostling the handle with no luck. 

“Charlie!” Rosie called out for her as she and Mimzy immediately flooded down the hall after her.

What was he gonna do? If that man had truly recognized her there was nothing he could do, right? There was no way this miracle could be taken from her. Surely she was worrying for nothing, right?

Still she pounded on the door. 

Refusing to consider what her father would do in the same situation. Her mind simply couldn’t go there, and though her body trembled in instinctual fear she couldn’t acknowledge why— she wasn’t ready to admit what she already knew.

“No! Let go of me!” Charlie shrieked as Mimzy pried her iron grip from the door handle. Rosie followed with shushing sounds as she tried to reason with Charlie and remove her from the crossfire. The older woman understood just how dangerous of a situation this had become for all of them.

Mimzy cursed as she drug Charlie, kicking and screaming, down the hall before stuffing her into a broom closet. The short woman braced a chair against the handle to keep it firmly shut. Regardless, Charlie wailed on the old wood as she screamed.

“You bitch! Let me out!” 

“—You can come out when you learn to be grateful!” Mimzy raged back, finally taking a moment to catch her breath and let her back slide down the wall in exhaustion.

Rosie struggled to catch her breath as well, but she was at least happy to have the situation under control. The older woman walked to a window at the front of the house and pushed back the curtains.

As she looked out it became clear that both the men had disappeared, only a trail of red snow confirming what she already knew.

  


* * *

  


Charlie didn’t even realize she had fallen asleep till she awoke to the loud creaking of the closet door swinging open. The old wood just barely conked her on the head and stirred her from her slumber.

Her head felt heavy and swollen from all her crying as she sat up, eyes trailing towards the light as a long shadow stretched across the small room. She stared wordlessly up at the shadow’s owner. There Alastor stood, disappointment clearly etched onto his face making it clear that she had lost whatever little favor he had in her.

He had changed clothes and was freshly showered judging by his damp hair. He looked more tired than angry, for that Charlie was grateful.

“You may come out now.” He spoke coldly. Already walking back down the hall and into the next room.

If Charlie didn’t feel like some troublesome child before then she certainly did now.

The disheveled girl rose onto her heels, rushing after the man, catching herself on the wall as she stumbled in her haste.

“W-What happened? What did you do?” She interrogated, as soon as she caught up with the man in the living room. 

It seemed she had been asleep for some time. The peaceful chirping of songbirds outside replaced now with wolf howls and owl calls. The living room was now dim as the fireplace crackled, it’s soft, dim embers on the verge of dying themselves. Shadows basked in the light's absence, dancing with the fire against the wood floor. 

Alastor had found his way into his recliner, one leg on top of the other as his eyes scanned the newspaper now in his hands. His eyes so dark that even the fire’s light could not illuminate them. He did not flinch a muscle when Charlie spoke, unphased by her barrage of questions entirely.

“Alastor.” Charlie called again, and again Alastor did not respond, merely flipping to the next page of his newspaper with silent anger.

Charlie threw her arms up in exasperation. Rattling her head as she stalked closer.

“So, you’re ignoring me now?” She seethed, heels clicking across the hardwood until she stood in front of her captor, only the wall of newspaper between them now.

Still the man said nothing.

“You— You can’t do this. You can’t just give me the silent treatment. I’m not some child. I didn’t do anything wrong!” She shouted, stomping her heel as she waved her arms around in an animated rage, looking more like a child throwing a tantrum than she intended.

He flipped to the next page of his paper.

Charlie saw red. 

The young fuming girl snatched the news print from his hands, quickly tossing it into dwindling fire in blind anger. 

“This is your fault! Hate me all you want, it doesn’t make me the monster here! You earned that title all on your own!” She shrieked, stumbling as her heated wrath crippled her balance. 

Alastor merely looked at her blankly, resting his cheek against his palm. He had sat up, elbows resting on his knees now as he watched with exhausted eyes. 

Charlie crumbled to the floor in hopelessness. Not realizing she had started crying till she felt the droplets fall on her skirt. She fell to pieces in that instant, a horrible feeling of loneliness overcoming her, a feeling that had taken seed long before their paths ever crossed.

She supposed she was a disappointment to everyone. Her parents never knew what to do with her, her friends were constantly embarrassed by her, and now even her kidnapper was upset with her. The feeling of constant rejection had long since done a number on her self esteem.

“I— I just want to go home.” She cried, hands balled up over her eyes as she struggled to catch her breath.

It seemed minutes passed as she sat there in her own misery. The ticking of the old grandfather clock filling the room before it eventually chimed on the hour, seeming to stir Alastor. The man silently rose to his feet, shuffling past the sobbing girl, and Charlie was certain that he was just going to leave her there like that. Instead he had circled back around, draping the throw blanket around the crying girl’s shoulders 

“I don’t hate you.” He finally whispered behind her ear, kneeling down as he situated the blanket around her trembling silhouette. He gently combed her hair back and out of her face before pressing a soft kiss to her flushed cheek. “Rather, I wish you realized how much I adore you.”

Without further delay he rose to his feet once more, patting the girl’s head as he turned to take his leave. He stopped in the doorway just briefly, looking back with a soft expression.

“Goodnight, my darling.” He offered before disappearing into the night. 

Charlie hiccuped as she sucked in a heavy, uneven breath. She now sat alone with a burning fire and her equally burning thoughts. She groaned loudly in discontent, dramatically face planting into her knees as she cursed everything.

No, this wasn’t the silent treatment— it was something much worse.

  


* * *

  


Two days. 

Two days had passed since the stranger came to the door. Life proceeded as normal as life could be in this dreadful house. Alastor continued to talk to Charlie, though it was different now. He obviously held back, never going too deep. It felt like speaking to her was more of a civil obligation than anything else. 

She wasn’t surprised when Mimzy followed his lead and committed to her very own silent treatment for Charlie, but she was when Rosie did. It seemed her stunt had upset everyone in that house.

Still— she refused to give up without a fight.

It was early in the morning. The sun was just then rising over the mountains to greet the singing birds, as Charlie opened her bedroom door with an undesirable squeak sounding for the old, warped wood. She bit her lip, flinching at the sound that aimed to ruin her stealth mission.

She peeked her head out the door, looking across the hall to find Mimzy and Rosie bedroom doors still closed, the two still snoozing away until a more godly hour she presumed. More importantly she looked to the room at the end of the hall where light could not reach Alastor's room, the door to which left cracked and opened.

She cursed. 

She had hoped he’d still be asleep, but she reasoned he was probably already off to work. After all, it seemed he only woke up before the sun when he was scheduled for the morning radio report. The man seemed to work irregular hours at the radio station, which made Charlie’s life an unpredictable hell. Regardless, she pressed on.

“Shit—” She whispered through clenched teeth as she crept down the stairs, each step screeching in agony beneath her weight. She sure hoped Alastor was at work, because her subtly was already compromised.

When Charlie got to the bottom of the stairs she quickly darted into the kitchen looking for any signs of life, noticing a rinsed out coffee cup sitting in the sink and the man’s coat missing from the hall rack. It seemed he was gone.

She rejoiced.

Immediately the girl ran to the back door, unraveling her waist band to pull her small kitchen knife out. After a few weeks she managed to conclude that the backdoor featured the weakest looking locks in the house, so off she began digging her knife into the weak connection point between the wall and the metal latches.

“Yes, yes, yes!” She squealed in hushed triumph, as she managed to pry loose the most difficult looking lock, already beginning work on the others.

She was glowing with victory. 

Charlie knew she had to get out of this place. She knew that each day that passed she was slowly losing sight of who she was and what her objective was. If she could just get past these locks then she’d be able to return to some sense of normalcy— at least she hoped. 

She’s hooked her head rid of doubts, focusing on her task.

With Alastor at work that meant she had time on her side. If she could get out then she could make it to that signal tower Rosie had shown her. She could finally put all this behind her.

Three more locks practically broke under her sheer determination. The metal pieces fell to her feet as she swung the door open in haste. She gasped, falling as the door swung up before stumbling to her feet. 

She stood breathless for a moment, taking in the fresh air and her absolute triumph. A wide smile of relief found its way onto her face as she danced in pure glee. 

“Charlie?” 

It was funny how fast the tables turned.

The joy scattered from the girl’s body, shock freezing her in place as guilty eyes darted to the lone man bent over by the nearby garden hose. Alastor straightened his back, dropping the metal bucket he had been filling with water as his stern eyes narrowed in her direction.

“You weren’t supposed to be here...” Charlie simply remarked, part of her wishing she had just stayed in bed— the smarter part.

“Neither are you.” Alastor echoed her sentiment, prying his winter gloves from his hands and tossing them to the ground after foreseeing them becoming a problem when he tries to wrangle this dashing doe.

“About that—” Charlie interrupted her own fruitless explanation when she suddenly sprinted off the porch, booking it across the snowbank.

“Charlotte!” She heard Alastor scream behind her, and boy did he sound angry. Still the girl leaped across the freshly fallen snow with aimless determination. 

She had to be realistic. There was no way she’d make it to the tower now. Hell, she’d be pushing it to even think she’d reach the treeline. She had no plan and no hope of getting out of this unscathed. Just as her tired body was about to admit defeat she spotted it. The old creaky shed that she had noticed the day she fell in the ice. 

She could make it. 

Suddenly a new burst of energy zapped her aching bones, propelling her to the shed in record time. She pulled open the old barn door, frankly finding that it wasn’t locked to be a miracle. She spun around in a frantic panic, using her full body weight to close the door behind her. 

She cursed realizing that there was no lock on the inside, instead she thought quickly, noticing a rusted pitchfork hanging on the wall just beside her head, she snatched it quickly before bracing it against the doors handle, by which point it seemed Alastor had caught up. The man kicked on the dilapidated wood so hard splinters of it broke off on impact. 

Charlie squealed as she fell back on the dusty cement, recoiling from the sound. Still, she thanked god for the resilience of her makeshift lock.

“Charlotte Magne! Come out this instant!” Alastor yelled, as he continued to pound away on the door. 

Charlie flinched, crawling backwards on her hands and knees as her eyes remained fixed on the small sliver of light in the door. The man’s dark silhouette danced wildly in the crack as he jostled the handle.

“Charlotte!” 

She had never heard the man sound so desperate, not even when she fell in the lake. No, the man outside sounded like an animal, running on pure adrenaline.

Charlie cringed, backing further into the large shed till suddenly she felt something hit the back of her head. She blinked, reaching back blindly to assess the situation, immediately flinching when her hands came in contact with something cold, wet and greasy. 

She looked up, and there dangling from iron hooks, cascading down from the rafters were several unidentifiable slabs of meat. 

Charlie groaned in disgust, swatting the swinging flesh away from her instinctively as she stumbled to her feet.

He did say he went hunting, Charlie remembered. As she walked further in, side stepping the creaking hooks of meat along the way. As she walked, arms folded in tight discomfort, she couldn’t help but notice the meat taking on peculiar shapes, unlike any animal she had ever seen. The sight slowly came to twist her stomach in knots.

Her body already knew the truth. Her instincts screaming at her to get out of this place, while something dark in the back of her mind called her further in. Even as the shed’s mysteries unraveled before her eyes she couldn’t look away. 

Breaking through the wall of hanging death she came upon a workbench. The old wood stained with layers upon layers of thick, sticky, blood. Metal saws and knives thrown haphazardly across the decaying surface trails of blood splatter marking their path. Jars of demented keepsakes lined the shelves. Eyeballs sitting in discolored preservatives, teeth in various sized jars.

In her horror she had blocked out everything around her, Alastor’s insistent banging, her jittering heart, and the sound of metal dragging on the floor. 

“AH!” Charlie screeched as she was pried out of her trance-like state. Suddenly she was pulled to the ground by a constricting grip on her ankle. She sputtered, the ground reeked of decay and felt sticky to the touch.

Charlie gasped, attempting to crawl away thinking Alastor had finally caught up with her. Despite her efforts she was drug back, nails digging painfully into the cold floor. 

She panicked.

“No, no, no! Let go of me! Let go!” She screeched, her body going full fight or flight mode. Without fully processing what she was doing she raised her hand up and plunged it down into her fleshy assailant. Only remembering she still had the kitchen knife in her mitts after she had dug it into the bastard twenty more times.

“—elp... ee.” A strangled voice choked. Charlie peaked up through tear stained lashes, expecting to find her kidnapper there, instead what she found made her heart drop and stomach sink.

The man from the other day— the one who had recognized her! He looked nothing like before, now beaten and swollen up like a blimp. His teeth were missing, crippling his speech, and a short chain confining him to the corner of the shed by the ankle. Not to mention, the fresh blood that seeped from his new stab wounds.

Charlie screamed, crawling away till her back pressed against the far wall. She watched on in terror as an innocent man took his last breath, not even noticing when the door to the shed was broken down, allowing in both the cold and her captor.

“Char—!” Her name died on Alastor’s lips as he ran into the shed, immediately welcomed by her massacre. 

Alastor’s wide eyes looked at Charlie briefly before shifting to her mess. Slowly stalking toward the limp body sprawled across the floor in a river of its own blood. He knelt down in silence as he lifted the man’s wrist, assessing his pulse. 

Nothing.

“Y— Y...” Alastor looked up, eyes wild, meeting Charlie’s trembling gaze. The poor girl’s once refined clothes now covered in blood and grime. Most notably, she had a small but obviously deadly knife clutched to her chest. Alastor’s eyes narrowed in on the knife. 

_When did the little thing swipe that?_

He might have been angry if he wasn’t so impressed. He couldn’t even hide the astounded smile on his face. 

_How entertaining._

“Y—You! You killed him!” Charlie stuttered in her traumatized panic. The metallic blade trembling in her hands as she suddenly pointed it towards Alastor in a way that looked more pitiful than threatening.

He honestly tried to stifle the laugh that erupted forth, regardless he chuckled hysterically. His hand politely, though fruitlessly, trying to cover his humored smile. 

He rose to his feet stepping over the dead man with no respect. He stalked towards the shivering girl with a fixated gaze before kneeling down in front of her. 

“No—” He chuckled shamelessly, gently and slowly plucking the weapon from her hands with surprisingly little resistance. “No, my dear...” 

He reached out with his empty hand, pushing a stray lock of hair back behind the girl’s ear, getting a better look at her beautiful tear stain face. His eyes lit up in infatuation.

“You did.”

“No— I... I didn’t-” Charlie choked, hands pressing against both sides of her skull to try and halt her rattling brain.

No, that’s not possible. She didn’t mean to!

“My darling— My wicked, monstrous belle,” Alastor cooed, his hand falling to caress her blood stained cheek. “The evidence is right in front of you. There’s no use denying it.”

“No...” Charlie cried weakly, trying to pull away from the man and this disturbed nightmare.

“Honestly, there’s no use crying over it. He was dying anyway. What you did was a mercy, my love. An act of charity really.” Alastor proclaimed in a matter of fact tone. The lunatic rose to his feet, tugging Charlie along with him. He bent at the waist to lift her onto the cleanest side of the work bench and out of the puddle of blood pooling at her feet.

“You’re ok, you’re ok.” He soothed, petting Charlie’s hair when the waterworks started to fall. Nuzzling their faces together as he attempted to console her and ground her. “You’re nothing short of brilliant, darling. You did spectacularly”

He wouldn’t let her slip.

He wouldn’t allow her to go inward— to numb herself and suppress this astounding memory. No, he needed her to stay with him, to bask in the bloodbath she created. He needed it as much as he needed air and he refused to suffocate.

Alastor allowed her to catch her breath, humming softly as his hand gently ran patterns down her arm, forcefully pulling her back down to earth. As he watched her with a new adoration he couldn’t help but notice how breathtaking she was in that moment.

Her curls were wild, half thrown over her shoulder and half cascading in disarray before her. Her doe eyes wide and all consuming, light just barely twinkling against them as tears threatened to spill once more. Her cheeks more rosy than ever as blood smeared against her porcelain skin. He swooned.

Suddenly he was positively smitten with the sight of her.

“Charlie—” Alastor called softly, almost like a ghost, as if he was afraid she’d run away screaming if he spoke any louder.

Charlie’s nervous eyes darted up to look at him. His gaze focused on her lips, as his thumb ran across a stray drop of blood, smearing it across her bottom lip. Charlie could have swore she saw his eyes sparkle at the sight. He looked up to meet her anxious gaze, offering her a dazzling, enamored smile.

“You are absolutely haunting, my dear.” He professed, leaning down to steal her lips with his. One hand cupping her jaw firmly while the other he used to brace himself against the workbench. 

Charlie’s distorted mind didn’t even process what was happening till she felt him pressing further against her, kicking her legs apart as he stepped between them, drawn in by her sinful allure.

Her hands weakly clawed into his winter coat against his shoulders as she felt her back sink down against the bench below. Her muffled cries came out more like needy moans than she ever intended and for that she could’ve died right there like so many people before her. 

She was in survival mode.

Her heart beating like a drum as she stared wide eyed and traumatized at the man who was blissfully kissing her in the middle of his murder shed. She didn’t have the balls to push him away, not with a hoard of death soaked weaponry literally dangling above her head. 

She may never forgive herself, but she let it happen. 

She let the freshly unveiled psychopath claim her kiss like some kind of post murder trophy. At least every second he spent kissing her was another second he wasn’t remembering how angry he was with her for trying to run away. 

It was Alastor who finally pulled back from their kiss, with slow love struck movements. Charlie’s head was spinning.

“As breathtaking as you are, I reckon a bath is in order.” Alastor laughed, looking down as he pulled lightly at her blood drenched skirt for emphasis.

The girl said nothing as she was swiftly picked up from the bench. The man easily carried her as he once again stepped over the dead man laying at their feet.

“Come on then, angel.” He sang cheerfully as he briefly spun around as if dancing. “Let’s get you taken care of, shall we?”

Charlie didn’t argue. She was shocked silent as she watched the not so mysterious slabs of meat once again pass by as the man carried her out. Suddenly it hit her.

People— He had been feeding her people.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnnd~ there you have it! I hope I've peaked your interest with this chapter. >:)
> 
> As always please let me know what you think! Kudos, comments, and criticism are more than welcome. Also, if you have any ideas for what you think might happen next please share! I'm always interested to hear from you guys and open to new inspiration.
> 
> Until next chapter! Cya!! <3


	4. He's A Deal Maker

  


After her horrific discovery in the shed Charlie was on her best behavior.

No longer did she spend her days looking for gaps in the security measures of her prison, or mentally formulating escape plans at the dinner table— for now at least fear wouldn’t allow her. 

Knowing what she knew now, the extent of Alastor’s insanity, was a humbling fact. The stakes were suddenly higher than she had ever realized. As far as she knew, if she managed to anger him enough then she might be the next one served with a side of red beans and rice. 

So, for the following week she was on her P’s and Q’s. She was the model victim, doing everything Alastor asked of her without question— eager to please and eager to survive. With Rosie’s allowance she began helping with the household chores, taking on the task of steam pressing Alastor’s shirts and sweeping the floors. At the very least the extra work kept her mind from wandering to her hauntingly vivid memories. Only when she grew stagnant did she get flashbacks, the stench of death and feeling of blood on her hands still kept her awake at night.

She didn’t sleep much anymore.

“Al, hurry up will you!” Mimzy suddenly called from downstairs one evening, her tone radiating impatience. 

Alastor had just returned home from his shift at the radio station. He had decided to change his bow tie before heading back out it seemed. Now he stood before his bedroom mirror deliberating on which necktie to choose, while Charlie sat on the other side of the room, busy tucking his folded clothes away. 

“You’re leaving?” Charlie chimed in a quiet voice, looking back over her shoulder at the man curiously, his cheerful humming pausing to answer her.

“I take Mimzy to the night market once a month to stock up on groceries. She’s hard pressed to get there before the best produce is picked over.” He explained while he adjusted his bow tie of choice in the mirror.

“I see...” Charlie remarked from her spot on the floor. The young girl didn’t bother questioning further as she turned back to her task of arranging the man’s drawers. Alastor’s eyes flickered over to her reflection in the mirror as he straightened his back.

“Would you like to come along, my love?”

Charlie blinked. The girl looked back to the man with wide, dumbfounded eyes.

“You... want me to go?” She asked with a tilted head. Wondering just how many screws were loose in this man’s head. 

Did he forget that just a week ago she had attempted a jailbreak?

Alastor merely shrugged as he moved to collect his coat from the bed, adjusting his cuffs as he went. 

“Don’t you?” He smiled, as he looked up briefly to meet Charlie’s gaze, causing the girl to flush red realizing that she had been staring at him a bit too long. “Besides— you’ve been surprisingly well behaved and I’m sure you’d enjoy the night market.”

After throwing on his coat he had approached the girl, offering a hand out which she took, pulling the girl to her feet. 

Charlie was prepared to interrogate the man’s motives further when he suddenly bent down, claiming her cherry red lips with his. Her eyes flung wide open as she felt his hand at the small of her back, pulling her close. The kiss was fleeting, coming as soon as it stopped. 

“You should come.” Alastor smiled encouragingly, raising a hand to cup her tender cheek. “I’d enjoy your company.”

“O...k” Charlie found herself saying, her better judgement somewhere else as she lost herself in his sharp gaze.

_For a serial killer he sure had some pretty eyes._

Charlie shook her head, discarding the tone deaf thought as she cursed her muddled sensibilities. In what reality does a kidnapped woman stare off dazedly into her captor’s eyes? None, and certainly not this one, she reasoned.

“Brilliant! We’ll have to do something with your hair though.” Alastor remarked, gently pulling one of Charlie’s loose curls against his lips. A heavenly scent of honey crisp apples cascading from the golden tendril. “It’s a bit too— iconic I’m afraid.”

Charlie reached a hand up, probing her silky mane self consciously. Her eyes fell to the floor like bricks as she turned away from the man in a bashful shame.

“Alastor!” Once again called Mimzy’s nagging voice, procuring an exaggerated sigh from the man, but his dazzling smile remained unharmed.

“I did in fact hear you the first time, Mimzy, dear.” Alastor hollered back as he turned to make his exit out the bedroom. He stopped just short of the door frame, looking back to the disoriented girl left standing in the middle of his bedroom.

“Grab your coat my dear,” Alastor chimed, looking Charlie up and down with faint concern. “You’ll catch your death without it.”

  


* * *

  


For Charlie’s disguise it seemed she was able to sufficiently satisfy Alastor by folding her hair up under her vintage style hat. The headpiece had been made from a warm, rosy felt, and was tilted to one side which helped to somewhat obscure her face. Still, her ringlets peek out just below her ears, the delicate curls framing her dainty features tastefully.

Charlie is practically glued to Alastor’s hip the entire trip, more afraid of being without him than being with him. She didn’t even consider trying to duck inside one of the small passing herds of shoppers that skirted passed. Instead she’d reached out, tugging on the back of Alastor’s coat to keep from being lost in the shuffle.

“If you’re not going to be useful, could you at least not get in the way?” Mimzy huffed rhetorically when Charlie had evidently spent too much time staring off distantly into the produce section. Alastor was far too absorbed in animated small talk with the sale’s clerk to notice when the plump battle axe of a woman nudged Charlie aside. The younger girl stumbled as she was sent flying.

Charlie sucked her lip into a tight awkward smile, deciding it’d be best to just let her and Alastor comb through the section themselves, it's not like she really had an eye for picking produce anyway. Instead she stepped back, absentmindedly swinging the empty shopping basket in her hands, when suddenly a mouthwatering aroma caught her attention.

She spun around in place, marveling at the strings of lights that zigzagged and flickered over top the market stalls. The night sky above was adorned with millions of shimmering stars, all twinkling breathtaking in the cosmos. Her mystified breath could be seen like smoke in the crisp, winter air as she looked around. With curious eyes she sprung up on her tip toes as she peered across the alleyway, her eyes becoming as wide as saucers when she spotted the source of such a delicious smell.

A small bakery stall stood proudly at the end of her affections. The alluring essence of vanilla and cinnamon calling to Charlie and luring her in. The young girl wandered across the street in a trance like state, a smile creeping onto her face as she peered down at the sweet selection, mentally fawning over each pastry until her eyes clung onto one treat in particular.

Candied apples.

The plump, juicy delights shined like rubies under the sparse warm   
lights. Charlie could see her enamored breath escape her when she sighed dreamily in it’s direction. Despite her distracting sweet tooth, she still felt the heartache in her chest as she stared into the glossy treat. 

A fleeting memory crossed her mind, one of her father, when he had taken her to the gourmet candy shop by their estate for her sixth birthday. He had sworn up and down she was only getting one sugary confection and nothing more, still he proceeded to buy out half the store when Charlie flashed him her most persuasive, puppy-dog eyes. 

Charlie smiled dreamily, remembering the huge candy apple she had slowly chipped away at the whole drive home. It seemed her dazed wonder had caught someone else’s attention, as the sound of someone clearing their throat snapped her out of her trance-like state.

“Would you like one, Miss?” The young man behind the stall asked with a friendly smile, making Charlie's face flush red when she realized how weird she must have looked zoning off like that. 

“Oh! No, thank you!” She waved off the gentleman’s request with a nervous smile, looking down at her empty basket as she tucked her hair behind her ear.

It seemed the boy wasn’t buying her answer, as he looked at her skeptically. Charlie was about to turn back to where she had come from when suddenly a hand reached out towards her, a mesmerizing candied apple being held before her doe-like eyes.

“Take it. It’s on the house!” The clerk offered with a charismatic chuckle. Charlie immediately felt guilty, like she had coerced the man with her sheer stupidity alone. 

“Oh no, I couldn’t—” She tried to decline respectfully. She never had been comfortable taking free handouts, not when there were so many others who needed them more.

“Really, it’s fine. We’ll have to throw them out after tonight anyway.” He insisted, his eyes briefly flickering up and down Charlie’s silhouette. “Besides, a beauty such as yourself deserves something sweet.”

“Oh! No— I U-Uh...” The fight died on Charlie's lips when she saw the stubbornness in the man’s eyes. She sighed with a sheepish smile, as she took hold of the heavenly sweet. Her voice was small but grateful when she whispered. “Thank you...”

Charlie took a half step back after taking hold of the wooden skewer that was lodged into the delicious dessert, immediately she felt herself collide with an immovable force. She gasped, looking back ready with an apology until she saw who it was that she had bumped into.

“Could I get you anything, sir?” The stall keeper called out while looking over her shoulder. 

It seemed Alastor had noticed her absence and quickly tracked her down. Luckily he didn’t seem angry with her, probably impressed she wasn’t trying to smuggle herself out on the back of someone’s four wheeler. Regardless, he stared straight ahead, his eyes narrowing as he mentally scrutinized the clerk.

He may not be angry with her but he definitely seemed off kilter regardless. His cold eyes were half lidded as he stared silently ahead, his mind clearly somewhere else— somewhere wicked and vile. Charlie immediately recognized the look in his eyes and she felt the anxiety bubble in her chest, her eyes darted between Alastor and the man as she decoded the situation.

_No— Not again._

Without overthinking it she reached down, interlacing her fingers with Alastor’s, immediately pulling the man back down to earth. The older man looked down at her curiously, not used to her being the initiator of physical contact. His shock allowed Charlie to beat him to an answer.

“No, thank you! He’s not much of a sweet tooth, I’m afraid!” Charlie explained quickly as she pulled Alastor down the street, clinging to his arm, worried that if she didn’t the gentleman running the bakery stall would find his way onto their dinner menu. She was desperate to keep Alastor eyes on her and no one else, and surely that was the only reason why. “Come on, Al.” 

Alastor surprisingly didn’t argue as he was pried away. He silently let the girl lead him back across the alley, where Mimzy had just finished crossing off the last items on their grocery list. The stocky woman looked up, tucking her pen behind her ear as her expression turned sour.

“Having fun?” She spat bitterly, her icy blue eyes staring daggers into the tight hold Charlie had on Alastor’s arm. 

The younger girl pouted, realizing she was holding onto the man with both hands, one interlocked with his while the other kept his arm firmly clutched against her chest. Only after looking down did she become frazzled, realizing how her blouse had a deep, inappropriate dip, allowing her plump chest to push against Alastor’s arm suggestively.

She sputtered awkwardly as she moved away, pulling her blouse up to better hide her femininity. However, upon making a motion to release the man’s hand from hers she met resistance. Alastor’s hand still proudly held onto hers as he gently pulled her towards him with a hearty chuckle.

“Come along, my dears.” Alastor chimed joyously, bending at the waist to pluck the heavy shopping basket from Mimzy’s hand, allowing the women to muffle her jealousy by holding onto his arm in the process. “I foresee a delicious dinner in our future.” 

As Mimzy snuggled against Alastor’s shoulder, with a flirty giggle Charlie felt her stomach twist in dread as she was dragged back to the car. She looked down at the delicious sweet in her hand, her expression turning repulsed. 

Suddenly, she had lost her appetite.

  


* * *

  


“Charlie, stay at the table please.” Alastor called from the kitchen just as the girl had started to take her leave from the dinner table alongside Mimzy and Rosie.

The younger girl pouted, watching sullenly as Mimzy blew raspberries at her. The charming woman took her plate to the sink where Alastor had started the dishes, kissing him on the cheek in the process. Rosie visibly gaped as she stretched around the spiteful woman and dropped her plate in the sink behind her, immediately turning on her heel and making her exit. 

Mimzy would soon follow suit after failing to convince Alastor that she could do the dishes in his place. He merely shook his head, leaving the plates to soak in warm soapy water before drying his hands and grabbing hold of Mimzy’s soft face, planting a loving peck to her cheek just as she had done. His actions seemed enough to convince Mimzy to pick her battle another time, soon she too relented and marched her way upstairs.

Charlie sat alone at the dinner table, awkwardly fiddling with her napkin in her lap as she kicked her feet together anxiously below the mahogany table. She bit her lip, looking everywhere but at Alastor even after he had finished his task in the kitchen and rejoined her at the dinner table.

“Charlie—” Alastor eventually spoke up, and still Charlie’s eyes remained glued elsewhere, now focusing on adjusting her silverware on the table top.

“Hmm?” Charlie answered begrudgingly, merely raising her eyebrows to show that she was at least pretending to be listening.

She knew this intervention was coming eventually, still it was no less unwelcomed.

“It’s been a week, my dear.” Alastor remarked, resting his chin tiredly against his palm as he looked over at the girl from the bottom of his stale eyes. “You’ve been strictly living off of side dishes and I’m beginning to find it somewhat concerning.”

“I’ve decided I’m a vegetarian.” Charlie suddenly announced, her eyes darting up to the ceiling nervously, wishing she could be anywhere else besides this damn house. Her antics seemed to humor her kidnapper who outright laughed at her proclamation.

“Not in this house you’re not.” Alastor chuckled, his free hand tapping against the table absentmindedly. “You can’t live off rice, potatoes, and desert, my dear.”

“I’m not eating it, Alastor.” Charlie quickly snapped, suddenly meeting his gaze to finally put her foot down on the matter. “I’m not eating— _people_.”

Alastor fixed her with an unreadable expression, his calculated eyes just watching her as if she was a lab rat caught in his own twisted experiment. After a moment he merely rolled his eyes, raising an eyebrow dismissively.

“Technically, you already have—” He reminded her, igniting the stewing girl’s building resentment.

“Because you lied—!” 

The man raised his hand, hushing her defense as he continued.

“My point is that clearly it's not the taste that discourages you. So rather it's a morality issue that you’re so stuck on.” Alastor casually reasoned aloud, causing Charlie to scoff at his sheer detachment.

“You act like you never met someone with human decency.”

Alastor visibly clenched his jaw at the statement, his nails digging dangerously into the table cloth as he seemed to zone out. 

“—People like that are few and far between I’m afraid.” He finally replied through clenched teeth. It wasn’t much but it was enough to give Charlie hope.

If she could just get this man to open up to her then maybe she had a chance of getting out of this place. She could try to breathe sense into him. At the very least it was worth a try.

“How does someone end up like you?” She gawked, shaking her head in a slowly negative motion as she held his gaze unapologetically. “How do you think what you’re doing is ok?”

His eyes narrowed, a light chuckle escaping his lips as he fell back into his chair.

“I don’t— I just don’t care.” Alastor answered honestly. His hands casually falling to the arm rests as he looked down at the girl, raising an eyebrow when his answer had the poor thing looking lost for words. “Not exactly the answer you were hoping for, huh?”

Charlie’s face grew red, knowing the man was just picking on her at this point. She sat there gaping at the man, as he just seemed to be humoring her with his disinterested answers.

“There’s no cure for being a visionary, my dear. You can not fix what is not broken.” He lectured her, throwing his arms as he shrugged, a dramatic sigh escaping his perfect lips. He leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking as it balanced on two legs.

“You’re wrong.” Charlie spoke defiantly. Her fingers curling tightly around the fabric of her skirt in her lap. Her expression turned resentful as she sat there stewing. 

He was practically laughing in her face, claiming that what she believed was her best shot of getting out this place merely led to a dead end— just like everything else she had tried. She was quickly losing hope.

Alastor sighed guiltily, as he felt solely responsible for the girl’s pitiful, dejected expression. His fingers danced over his lips as he thought carefully and dug deep.

“—My mother was heaven sent, I tell you.” Alastor suddenly chimed, his voice soft and reminiscent as he zoned off into the candle still flickering in the middle of the table. “If you thought my cooking was good I assure you it doesn’t even compare to what hers was like. The folks at Sunday service could put away her jambalaya like no one’s business...” 

Charlie looked at the man skeptically at first, but as he spoke it was clear it was from the heart, something she wasn’t even sure he possessed before now. She took a hesitant breath, relaxing her shoulders as she leaned in.

Alastor rolled his eyes at his childhood memories, his expression quickly turning sour despite a sadistic grin still weaving itself across his lips. He rose to his feet, stepping over to the liquor cabinet in the corner of the room where he collected a bottle of dark liquor and two shot glasses. 

“My father on the other hand was a filthy rat.” He spat venomously, as he poured two shots, offering one to Charlie who shook her head in rejection. He merely shrugged, downing both shots himself. “—A self proclaimed man of god, with as much patience as he had compassion for those around him. An egotistical, pompous, reverend of the church. Whose only joy came from his own family’s misery.”

Charlie felt her heart strings being pulled. Despite everything her heart still went out to the man. She seemed to consider reaching out for his hand, but she had lost confidence along the way, her palm falling just halfway across the table. She bit her lip as her eyebrows knitted together, not knowing how she should feel or what she should say.

“He always said he’d kill her. The threat lost its effect after hearing it for so long— that is until the day he beat her so bad she choked on her own blood. I was six.” The man remarked distantly, his voice sounding emotionally removed from the situation as he ran his finger around the empty shot glass. 

Charlie felt a rush of sympathy and guilt wash over her. When she was six years old she was being paraded around as daddy’s little princess, when Alastor was six his mother was murdered by his father. It seemed that contrast clearly manifested in their personalities.

“When the church found out I thought they were shocked silent. Turns out they were just silent. They knew what he did and they defended him regardless. All for the sake of protecting their beloved minister.” Alastor laughed suddenly, doubling over as he held his stomach, a boisterous chuckle overcoming him. He took a minute, collecting himself before continuing.

“After that, I decided that any god they believed in was not one worth worshiping.” He explained with a nonchalant smile. “—And by the time I was sixteen my father would find himself in a nasty hunting accident.”

Alastor reached out, his fingers toying with the bottle of brandy absentmindedly as he suddenly met Charlie’s gaze head on.

“Funny— how he begged for death by the time I was done.” He blinked slowly with a drunk smile, the alcohol kicking in as he leaned his cheek against his hand. “I didn’t eat him though. I don’t think I could stomach such bad meat.”

“I... I don’t—” Charlie bit her lip, every bone in her body resisting the urge to pity her kidnapper but it was a futile fight. Empathy had always been both her best and worst trait. She couldn’t just turn away from someone who had bared their heart to her. Even if they were a deranged cannibal working through their traumatizing childhood. “Alastor… I’m so sorry—”

“I’m not!” He interrupted the girl, proudly raising the bottle of liquor as he waved his arms around animatedly. “It was that wretched path that led me to such darling belles like yourself— and if a little blood has to be split to keep such filth away from my darlings then so be it.”

“Why though? W-Why do you...” Charlie didn’t know if she could ask her question, or if she even had the stomach for it, so she was thankful when Alastor beat her to the punch.

“Why do I eat them?” He smirked, with flirtatious half lidded eyes. When Charlie sheepishly nodded in the affirmative he shrugged nonchalantly. “I think it’s fun is all. The rush, the chase, the look of life leaving their eyes. It’s something poetic— But you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, Charlotte dear?”

Charlie said nothing, while her traumatized expression said everything. The young girl started to draw her hand back into her lap as she fought against the flashbacks that plagued her mind. Mentally flinching at every gory detail of that day in the shed. 

I wasn’t till Alastor suddenly sprung up across the table, pulling her fleeing hand into his, clutching it in dramatic eagerness as he leaned in, their noses almost touching from their close proximity.

“I see myself in you Charlie.” He proclaimed theatrically. “I see endless possibilities and potential for something great!”

Charlie shook her head in disgust.

“We clearly have different ideas of what’s considered great, Al.” Charlie rejected, pulling her hand away from the man as she nudged her chair back.

Alastor sighed disappointedly. She certainly was making him jump through all kinds of hoops, still he watched her dreamily for a moment as he seemed to ponder an idea in his head. After a minute of drunken consideration his smile grew wider, and he rose from the table, walking to the other side.

“I’ll make you a deal.” He suddenly suggested, his fingers trailing along the length of the table as he circled around. “If you eat, I’ll let you go.”

“What?” Charlie gaped. After all her time in this miserable little house all she needed to do to convince her captor to set her free was just get him drunk enough?

“Well— I do have one condition.” He added, as he stood beside the girl, now leaning against the table as he towered over her, lifting her chin up to meet his gaze. “If I catch you, I get to keep you.”

Charlie’s bewildered eyes danced between the deranged man’s as she swallowed the lump in her throat.

“You… want to hunt me?” Charlie spoke, her voice just barely a whisper as she searched Alastor’s eyes for answers. The man merely hummed as considered his response.

“What I want is for you to stop starving yourself, to stop trying to escape and to stop trying to appeal to my nonexistent humanity.” He explained, as he tucked the girl’s hair behind her lovely, slim neck. “That’ll be my prize should I catch you.”

Those were high stakes. If she agreed she hated to imagine what would happen should she try to break those conditions. Luckily, she learned from her father, one of the best deal makers she knew, to always flesh out the details.

“... And if you don’t?” She finally interrogated after a moment of hesitation. Her curiosity brought Alastor nothing short of delight as his face lit up in sheer fascination.

“If I don’t— then I yield. You can go home, back to disappointing your beloved daddy dearest.” He clarified, resting his hand over his heart as if to resemble a humble, honest man.

Charlie bit her painted lips, eyes darting down to the serving of meat still left on her plate. She squirmed beneath it’s presence, her stomach doing flips at the idea of consuming it, no matter how delicious it smelled, drizzled in olive oil and sweet liquor. 

Her deliberating was soon interrupted when Alastor held his hand out to hers.

“So, do we have a deal then?” He questioned with a tilted head and a devilishly grin that just made the girl want to turn tail and run. Instead she took his hand, shaking it as firmly as her father would as she spoke.

“Deal.” 

With that Alastor stepped aside, allowing Charlie to deliver on her word. The girl hesitated just a moment, folding her hands together, mumbling an incoherent prayer with closed eyes. Alastor raised an eyebrow as he leaned back, rolling his eyes as he watched from beside her.

With a swift amen she swallowed her inhibitions and collected her fork. She skewered the slivers of meat in large bites, swallowing them like a bad pill. One hand cupped around her water glass as she wolfed down the meal in between large gulps of water. She had to eat quickly she was convinced that otherwise her mind would catch on to what she was doing and trigger her gag reflex, so she kept her mind blank as she continued her mission. Within a few minutes she lifted her clean plate as she washed out her mouth with one last swig on water.

“No take backs.” She snapped, shoving the plate away from her as she felt her head start to spin, not so much from the meal itself but rather how she felt about it. She didn’t hate it, rather she hated herself. She really couldn’t deny it— Alastor truly was an amazing cook.

Even as her mind started to process what she had just eaten she felt no urge to purge over a toilet, a fact that alone sickened her.

“I’m done yeah? May I be excused?” Charlie huffed, using her napkin to pat her mouth clean as she rose up from her chair. Her mind was already working to formulate a plan for her escape as she moved to walk her plate to the kitchen sink, only to be caught by the arm and spun around.

Alastor had moved fast when she was at her most vulnerable, cupping the girl’s rosy cheeks as he leaned down and stole a kiss. His tongue dancing with hers as Charlie’s mind ran in circles. She gasped as soon as he came up for air, stepping back as she shook her head.

“That wasn’t part of the deal.” She snapped, as Alastor stepped closer, taking the plate from her hands and setting it back on the table. He chuckled as he snaked one hand up to take hold of her cheek again, the other settling on the small of her back. 

“No— and you’re free to object.” 

She told herself that the reason she didn’t stop him was because she was afraid he’d recant his offer, that she was just too afraid of him to fight back but those were lies. Hell, Alastor was almost more excited by their deal than she was, there was no way he’d back out now. She also knew by now that the last thing Alastor would ever want to do is hurt her, he was a gentleman despite his insanity, and he was outright telling her she could reject him if she wished.

She had no excuse for her compliance, she couldn’t explain it if she tried. All she knew was that she had craved validation her whole life, no one ever gave it to her, and now here she was in the arms of a man who wanted nothing but to adore her.

Of course he had to be deranged.

Still she allowed her brain to be muddled, letting the man push her back against the far wall as their lips intermingled. Their heads bobbing as they chased the other’s haunting allure.

“Al—!” She cried breathlessly in between heated kisses, feeling his hand weaving downward and pulling at her skirt.

“Hmm?” He vaguely responded, clearly his mind was focused on other things as his devilish hand wormed its way beneath her skirt ruffles, trailing ticklishly up her thigh. Charlie gasped, jumping in her high heels when she felt his hand suddenly pressing against her twitching heat.

Her face grew into a delightful shade of red, as she threw her head to the side as she focused on catching her breath. Alastor merely offered a deep, sultry chuckle, his gaze fixated on her face, watching her most microscopic expressions of euphoria seep through.

“Atta, girl.” He spoke with a gravelly voice. His lips against her ear as his fingers worked their magic. From his neck Charlie caught whiff of his cologne, echoing the faint essence of rosewood and pine, the heavenly scent making her brain feel like static mush.

Charlie whimpered behind clenched teeth as she squirmed beneath his touch, her every sense on overload. She cried out, throwing her head back against the wall. Her sheer volume caused Alastor to hold his free hand over her mouth to muffle the sound.

“Shh, my love.” He cooed tenderly, his voice clearly sounding humored by her frazzled state. “As much as I adore your little sounds, let’s not call on unwanted attention.”

It was clear he was referring to the other two women upstairs, Mimzy in particular if she were to guess. No doubt she’d have no problem marching down the stairs and prying them off each other if she had any idea what they were doing. Alastor leaned over, looking in the direction of the stairwell to listen for any sounds of stirring as Charlie whimpered against his hand.

When Alastor’s heated gaze turned back to Charlie she felt drunk off his attention. Her eyes glazed over as her hand weakly reached up to his hold over her mouth, her nails digging in though the man paid them no mind.

Beneath her skirt Alastor’s fingers ceased their flickering vibrations against her clit. Abruptly curling a finger around the thin material of her underwear before shoving it aside. Charlie gasped, biting into Alastor’s hand to stifle her scream when he dip a finger into her quivering pussy.

Alastor didn’t so much as flinch as the girl drew blood, just smiling like the mad man he was as he continued to sink his finger in and out of her wet heat. The vibrations made the fevered girl feel like she was floating, zapping the strength from her legs and forcing her to rely almost entirely on the wall to her back and Alastor’s steady hold on her to keep her upright. 

“You’re quite tight, my dear. Have I not paid you enough attention? Is that it?” The man teased against the shell of Charlie’s ear. The deep rumbling of a chuckle in his throat causing Charlie’s knees to buckle pathetically. “—One just might think you were a…”

Alastor’s words died on his lips when Charlie’s wide eyes flew up and screamed with embarrassment, begging him not to finish that sentence. Alastor’s eyes widened, mirroring her own with a shocked expression. His eyebrows came together curiously as his smile grew enamored.

“Oh.” He simply gawked, marveling at the speechless girl as she writhed beneath his smothering affection. “I suppose you’re more pure than I thought after all.”

Despite all the potential he saw in Charlie, despite the darkness he knew to be brewing just beneath the surface, just begging to be nurtured and cultivated, she was still so innocent and unsoiled by the world’s wrath. It made him antsy, he felt his long dead heart start racing in his chest, his mouth watering like a starving animal.

God, he wanted to ruin her.

Charlie crumbled beneath his affection. Her nails dug into the man’s shoulders, as her head slumped against his chest, her breath growing heavy and labored as she bit her lip to stifle her euphoric cries. In her compromised state Alastor could only just barely hear her mumbling something against his chest.

“What was that, my darling doe?” He asked, leaning back to force her to meet his gaze. After a moment, Charlie looked up her brain no doubt fried as she adorned a shameless, needy expression. She leaned forward, whispering against the man’s lip like the heaven sent succubus she was.

“Please— Don’t stop…”

Alastor outright snorted at the frivolous notion, suddenly bending down to hike her leg up and around his waist to give himself better access. He pressed a loving kiss to her forehead, as he suddenly added an additional finger inside the girl. 

“—Wouldn’t dream of it.” He answered, abruptly picking up speed as his fingers practically vibrated inside the girl. 

Charlie sputtered, burying her head into the crook of the man’s neck as she screamed and cried in passionate delight. Suddenly every fiber of her was erupting with wordless pleasure, every nerve in her body rattling as she was brought to the edge. Fireworks danced behind her eyelids as her eyes rolled back into her head, enjoying the colorful display as sensations sent jolts through her body.

“There she is…” Alastor cooed fondly, his hand finding its way out of her smothering heat as she finished on his fingers, instead his hand proceeding to run relaxing patterns along her thigh as he gently eased her back down to earth with his calming purr.

Charlie didn’t even notice the small, shameless smile that had conquered her lips. The rest of her body fell limp in Alastor’s arms as the man ran a trail of kisses up her neck, each one feeling like another spark as they sent shocks through her veins. She sighed in utter bliss as she stood there catching her fluttering breath. After a brief moment in paradise she opened her eyes, looking straight ahead with a dazed expression.

What she saw was immediately sobering.

It was brief, just a glimpse from the reflection in the glass of the China cabinet, Alastor’s dark shadow towered over her, looking crooked and menacing. His fingers like long spindly claws as he drug them up her thigh, with twisting antlers that grew out from his head and curled around her. 

In truth though Alastor’s warped reflection wasn’t what scared her, rather it was her own.

Her hair was wild, thrown over a set of winding red horns. Her nails were sharpened to a point, digging painfully into Alastor’s back. Just a pair of glowing pink and yellow eyes staring back at her from over his shoulder, a pointed smile carved across her unnaturally rosy cheeks. Charlie flinched, recoiling as if burnt by fire.

“No!” She screeched suddenly, shoving Alastor off of her with as much force as she could manifest. She fell to her knees, trembling like a lost puppy caught out in a snowstorm. She covered her ears, keeping her eyes squeezed shut as she curled into fetal position. 

“Charlie?” Alastor asked with genuine concern. Holding his hands out in a calming gesture as he crouched before the trembling girl, making no move to get any closer.

“No— please no.” Charlie cried, shaking her head against her arms as she rocked back and forth attempting to soothe herself.

“Shh, you’re ok.” Alastor ensured her, moving a bit closer when he realized she wasn’t against it. He reached out hesitantly, his warm hand softly massaging comforting patterns against the quivering girl’s back. She did not object. “Hey now— You know I have no intentions of hurting you, sweetheart. Right?”

Charlie sucked in a nasally breath, as she tried to compose herself, whipping her tears off on her sweater sleeve. After a moment she shook her head in the affirmative at the man’s question.

She knew he was a bad man but not to her, a fact that made her feel unworthy. Survivor’s guilt eating her alive as she took full advantage of his gentle side.

Alastor offered her a soft smile, somehow immediately easing the rattling anxiety in her chest. 

“Our deal can wait for tomorrow. Let’s get one night of proper rest under your belt first, ok? —Sound fair?” He suggested, pressing his hand against her forehead to check her temperature, halfway wondering if her sudden out lash was fever induced.

Charlie bit her cheek, unhappy to be postponing her return trip home, but still she knew she was in no state to put up a fight. Not to mention the woods at night just might kill her before Alastor could catch her. She relented begrudgingly, shaking her head in agreement to the man’s offer.

“Good choice.” He teased with a humored smirk, combing her hair back out of her face. “Now— Would you allow me to carry you up to your room?”

Charlie looked down, her legs feeling like noodles as her head felt heavy and muddled. She really didn’t have the energy to hike up those stairs, so again she stubbornly agreed. The young girl simply reached up, weaving her arms around Alastor’s neck as he scooped her off the floor board.

The man carried her to her bedroom, tucking her into the plush bed after slipping off her heels. He silently turned to take his leave but for some ungodly reason Charlie called out after him, guilt swelling in her chest.

“I-I’m sorry.” She spoke quietly from behind her bed covers. Eyes on his towering height as he looked back over his shoulder with an undeterred warmth.

“Nonsense, my dear. You’ve nothing to apologize for.” He insisted, as he reached for the light switch. “On the contrary, you’ve made me quite the happy man.”

With the flick of the light switch he was gone, leaving Charlie’s exhaustion to consume her as she sank down into a dreamless sleep.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for chapter 4! I hope you're happy, this chapter was the result of my unyielding procrastination. On that note though, just a heads up that next chapter might take me a little longer since I have finals coming up soon. 
> 
> Please feel free to leave any thoughts you have down below!! This story really lives and breathes on your lovely comments. 😘💕
> 
> Also shout-out to LunaLagrimosa for leaving me such sweet comments and sharing their ideas. You can thank them for coming up with the supervised shopping trip suggestion. Till next chapter! Cya!!


	5. The Hunt

  


It was a quiet morning.

Mimzy and Rosie were sitting in the breakfast room just off of the kitchen, the bright morning rays of sun cascading in from the tall window panes. The small room was decorated in a slew of old french country decor including a small, crystal chandelier that hung from the rafters above. The two women were enjoying flavorless small talk alongside freshly brewed tea and sugar cubes, passing the time as they awaited their morning meal. 

Alastor was moving about the kitchen with a spring in his step. He hummed merrily as he effortlessly cracked an egg into a copper saute pan with just one hand. He tapped his foot along to the soft music that spilled out from the old radio on the shelf, gently stirring the eggs as they began bubbling within the skillet.

The lovingly cultivated serene ambiance soon popped like a bubble as they heard a door upstairs suddenly fling open with a fierce conviction, the heavy vibration of marching feet came rushing down the stairs towards them with reckless abandon.

“Here comes trouble.” Alastor remarked jokingly as he turned the heat down on the stovetop, extinguishing the soft blue flame before carrying the now finished eggs over to the kitchen island to begin plating them.

Charlie had slid into the room with an excessive force. Her frilly socks lacked traction, making her slide into the kitchen cabinet with a distinct lack of poise and grace. The freshly awoken girl groaned as she nursed a manifesting bruise on her knee, but her recovery time was remarkably brief and she was back in business just moments later with a determined snap of her fingers.

“—You!” She gasped, pointing an accusing finger at her captor for a much desired emphasis.

“Good morning, Charlie, dear!” Alastor beamed cheerfully as he moved to toss the now empty cooking skillet into the sink. His eyes briefly met the frazzled girl’s wide gaze, flashing her a mischievous smirk before focusing back on his task. “Did you sleep well?”

“We had a deal!” Charlie interrupted as she steam rolled over the man’s polite inquiry, her soft hands settling comfortably on her hips as she tapped her foot vehemently. Alastor merely raised an eyebrow at her proclamation.

“Did we now?”

Charlie sputtered at the man’s lackadaisical attitude, her hands waving around in a vigorous display as she gestured wildly. The beginning of fourteen different sentences starting and dying on her rosy lips before she settled on just one.

“Y-Yes!” She insisted breathlessly, stepping closer as she sharply poked a well groomed finger against the man’s chest. “You said you’d give me a chance to go home!”

“You said what now?” Mimzy suddenly piped up from her seat in the peanut gallery. With her hands wrapped around her steamy tea cup the small woman slammed the glass back down onto the small charger plate, emphasizing her distaste. Alastor merely aimed to dismiss both her and Charlie’s concerns with a boisterous chuckle.

“Did I say that?” He asked with a tilted head. His eyebrows pulled together as he seemed to be searching for such an elusive memory. “Hmm, seems a bit fuzzy. Perhaps, I had too much to drink. You really should never trust a drunken announcer, darling.”

Charlie gaped as she watched the man toy with her emotions so shamelessly. She shook her head, her cheeks ballooning out like a fired up puffer fish as she surged forward, weakly beating her fists against his back as she angrily pouted.

“No! Y-You promised!” She cried as she stomped her feet in outrage only stopping when she heard a soft, less sadistic laugh escaping the belligerent man’s lips. Alastor swiftly turned on his heel, grabbing hold of both the girl’s flailing wrists to cease her harmless assault as he leaned in. His heated breath ignited the girl’s cheeks as he spoke gently.

“I’m teasing you, Charlie dear.” He smiled wholesomely, planting a kiss to her plump cheek before straightening his back. “I’m a man of my word no matter how slurred it may be.”

Charlie breathed a sigh of relief as her hope soared anew. A vibrant smile once again slipped onto her face as she bounced in place with sheer excitement. 

“However, I must insist you eat something first.” Alastor directed, playfully pinching the young girl’s cheek in between his fingers as he smiled teasingly. “You’ll need your strength after all.”

Charlie pulled a long face, her triumphant grin vanishing at the mention of another meal in this house, yet another obstacle. She pursed her lips, ready to try and weasel her way out of it when she spotted the breakfast plates the man had prepared.

There, dressing the plate, sat a piping hot pile of eggs, featuring a side of multigrain toast, spiced hash-browns and fresh cut fruit. The heavenly aroma immediately persuaded the girl’s reluctance, and she must have been drooling at the sight alone. Never before did a meatless meal appeal to her so much. 

“Charlie— be a dear and take Mimzy and Rosie their plates too, would you?” Alastor asked as he continued to go about preparing a cup of morning coffee for himself.

Charlie simply nodded in agreement as she leaned over to carefully stack all three plates in her arms. Her tongue stuck out from the side of her lip as she attempted to keep everything balanced. She gasped, almost dropping everything when suddenly Alastor leaned over, cupping a hand around her ear as he whispered.

“—After you’re done grab your coat and meet me by the door.” He instructed, finishing by sadistically blowing a warm breath of air against the girl’s already blushing ear. 

Charlie faltered briefly as the plates in her arms suddenly shifted, she quickly leaned back from the man to salvage the innocent dinner plates from an untimely demise. She shot the gloating man a very flustered and angry look, earning back only a tickled laugh in response before he turned back to his steel coffee pot.

Charlie huffed, blowing a stray curl out of her face as she walked towards the breakfast table. She carefully passed each of the women a plate, noticing Mimzy’s stink eye as she sat down across from her but making a point to ignore it anyway.

As Charlie munched on her buttered toast a delightful thought crossed her mind. After today, when Charlie was finally rid of this cursed house, maybe Mimzy would finally be able to smile again. Charlie felt the corner of her lip twist up into a smug smirk as she stared off out the window aimlessly.

She wanted nothing less.

  


* * *

  


Charlie was descending down the stairs two at a time, tying on her thick knitted scarf when halfway down she suddenly overheard a conversation taking place just around the corner.

“—But, Al, if she gets away what will happen to us? She’ll tell everyone! What happens when the police come knocking, huh?” Mimzy’s voice cried from the other side of the thin wall. Charlie could spot her animated shadow waving its dark hands dramatically as she pestered the man. Alastor’s silhouette was crouched over, busy tying up his boot laces as he argued with the little spitfire of a woman.

“I have no intentions of letting that happen, my darling.” He insisted as he finished with his laces, straightening his back to reveal a confident smile as he reached his hands up to squeeze Mimzy’s beautiful face in his palms. “Have you no faith in me?”

Mimzy was usually one to swoon over the man’s touch and attention but her concern was sobering. The tiny woman waved the man’s hands away as she pulled back, her cheeks puffed out in stewing anger as she glared up at the senseless man.

“Mark my words— Your arrogance will be the death of all of us.” Mimzy snapped dramatically, storming down the hall and into Charlie’s direct line of sight. Charlie was nervously trying to busy herself and disguise her obvious eavesdropping when Mimzy started up the stairs and grabbed Charlie by the collar of her shirt, the tiny women pack a punch as she pushed Charlie against the rickety old stair railing. The younger girl sputtered, her footing flimsy at best as wide eyes looked down at her assailant.

“If anyone finds out about us I’ll make you wish you drowned in that lake.” The woman hissed, offering the girl one last shove into the railing before storming the rest of the way up the stairs and into her bedroom, slamming her door to emphasize her fury in the process.

“She really is a charming woman.” Alastor suddenly chimed as he stood at the base of the stairs, hand resting on the iron railing as he looked up at the girl. “—Just not to you I’m afraid.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.” Charlie replied as she pulled at her collar, jumping down as she reached the last step of the stairwell. Alastor nodded in understanding as he scoffed. The man stepped forward to adjust the girl’s now wrinkled scarf. 

Charlie kept her eyes sheepishly glued to the floor as she felt his warm hands flicker across her neck. Their close proximity made her head feel muddled and hazy, a sentiment that accurately depicted her entire experience with the man.

“I’ll have a word with her when we get back.” He reassured her, though Charlie found the statement to be grossly overzealous.

“—When _you_ get back you mean.” She corrected, staring up at the man with large eyes that shimmered with abrasive determination. The man’s pointed gaze darted up to her own as he finished straightening her scarf, his eyes briefly flickered down to her soft lips before he corrected himself. He merely offered her a pragmatic chuckle as he turned on his heel.

“Sure.” He smirked, stepping away as he unlocked the front door and held it open for her. “After you, my dear.”

Charlie’s eyes narrowed distastefully at the man’s cocky attitude, regardless she didn’t argue. She’d let the hunt speak for itself later. The spirited girl merely bit her cheek as she confidently stepped out the house’s threshold, her shoulders squared and her back straight as she sidestepped the man.

“After me indeed.”

  


* * *

  


“I’m feeling generous—”

“—You mean over confident.”

“Regardless, you’ll have a fifteen minute head start.” Alastor informed Charlie as he kept his eyes on the road ahead of them. 

They had taken the man’s truck up into the mountains, traveling along the winding road for a couple hours. The terrain was rough and slippery thanks to the freshly fallen snow but Charlie had other concerns. 

Alastor explained that he wanted a change of scenery for their unusual hunt. He knew that if Charlie did manage to escape he couldn’t have her running to any of his community’s residents for help. No doubt, she’d have eyes on him quicker than he could outrun them. It was too dangerous, at least if she escaped in a few towns over he’d have time to take the girls and disappear first, not that he was worried he was simply well prepared. Still, Charlie thought it was unfair to bring her out into the middle of nowhere, she didn’t argue though, she’d take whatever opportunity she could get. She couldn’t deny it though, the increased likelihood of dying alone in the woods was certainly somewhat nerve wracking.

The girl’s knee jittered nervously as she bit mindlessly at her nail beds, her eyes glued out the window as she attempted to get a lay of the land she’d soon be set loose into. Alastor took note of her self destructive habit, reaching over to pull her hand away from her chattering teeth.

“Lucky for you, I’m without my usual hunting effects.” Alastor side eyed the girl sinisterly as he brought the back of her hand to his lips, pressing an affectionate kiss to her heated flesh. “If I can catch you and bring you back then I win, no more pouting at the dinner table or picking at the locks. If not—”

“Then I win.” Charlie whispered in a matter-of-factly voice, her eyes set on the horizon as Alastor pulled off into a side road and shifted the car into park.

“Hmm.” Alastor wordlessly remarked as he took a slow breath. His eyes narrowed as he turned, briefly marveling at the woman’s beauty beside him before he sighed, enjoying the calm before the storm. 

Charlie looked at him expectantly, straightening her knitted cap as she waited for her signal. Her heart felt like it was doing somersaults in her chest, somehow racing faster than her own mind as she mentally ran through her game plan. The determined girl was so busy with her thoughts that she even missed the audible sound of her car door unlocking.

“Charlie?” Alastor waved a hand in front of her distant gaze, quickly snapping her out of it and back into reality. He chuckled as he tilted his head back flirtatiously, looking at her from the bottom of his eyes. “You’re not having second thoughts are you, dear?

“As if!” Charlie answered flusterly, pushing her passenger side door open as she attempted to slide out her seat only to be caught by the arm. Charlie looked back at the man, the winter breeze picking up as her hair blew wildly in the wind.

Alastor merely smiled back, her wild elegance single handedly filling his lungs with the air he needed to breath in that moment. His eyebrows pulled together as he released his grip on her arm, letting her go.

“Fifteen minutes— make them count.”

With the final reminder Charlie was off like a lightning bolt. The man stayed in the car despite his instincts screaming at him to run after her. His fingers drilled against the steering wheel impatiently as he looked down at the clock on the radio, counting down the minutes. He groaned when the digits didn’t change fast enough, closing his eyes as his legs bounced anxiously.

Suddenly, fifteen minutes felt like hours.

  


* * *

  


Charlie came to the rapid conclusion that fifteen minutes wasn’t shit.

Still, as she raced alongside the mountain side at the blistering pace she took care to muddle her tracks, purposely running in circles and weaving between trees to slow her attacker down while she continued charged on ahead. Only as time dragged on did she slowly realize her plan was working. 

The breathless girl looked down at the wrist watch she had borrowed from Rosie earlier, suddenly realizing she may never be able to return it if she could keep this up. The small, golden trinket informed her that it had been an hour since their chase had become, and still not so much as a sound coming from behind her. Her aching legs demanded she slow her pace, and after looking over her shoulder she yielded, taking a moment to catch her breath as she pulled her coat closer.

The snow had picked up, the sun had already started lowering in the sky when the dark clouds rolled in carrying with them a fresh cold front. Charlie felt her teeth clattering in her mouth as she tracked through the snow, waving a large behind her to hopefully mask her foot prints.

All she had going for her was the hope that if she carried on in this direction she’d find the main road Alastor had driven them in on. It seemed pretty much barren and abandoned earlier, aside from themselves there were no other cars on the crooked strip the entire drive up. Regardless, it was her best shot. As Charlie trudged along she didn’t realize how rapidly her pace had declined, or how complacent she had become with that fact. 

She was just _so_ tired.

She had carried on for sometime, as evident by the long lost feeling in her freezing fingers. She knew the road had to be close as she glanced down at her watch, trying to estimate the distance she traveled based on the time it took her. When suddenly she heard the sound of crunching snow in the distance behind her. 

_No, no, no!_ Her mind screamed as she scrambled to find a hiding spot, dropping her handy tree branch in the process. Her once fried legs suddenly found their strength again as she rushed to a large, fallen, tree trunk. She wasted no time, worming herself under the long piece of decaying wood. The inside had been hollowed out by mother nature’s wrath, providing Charlie the perfect hiding place as she waited with bated breath.

“Charlotte—!” Alastor sang menacingly in the distance over the roar of wind that lashed at their bodies from all sides. Charlie shrank into herself, noticing his steps getting closer as his boots continued to disturb the frozen earth beneath them. “You know, no one would fault you for surrendering! This weather is no place for a lady, my dear.”

Charlie rolled her eyes at the man’s patronizing tone, clasping her freezing cold hands over her mouth to muffled her labored breathing. Burying her face against the rotting wood as she mentally recited a prayer.

“If you come out we could be done with this, you know! I’ll have you sitting in front of a fireplace sipping hot chocolate before dinner. Doesn’t that sound nice, darling?” Alastor called out, attempting to persuade the runaway. As his eyes scanned through the area he took notice of the seemingly out of place tree branch and the tracks that followed from it. He smiled as he quietly let them guide his path.

Charlie shrank back into her hiding place, sweat beading down her neck despite the freezing conditions when suddenly she felt a steel grip yanking on her ankle, swiftly pulling her out from underneath the tree trunk. Charlie gasped as Alastor was suddenly towering above her, a cocky smile spread across his delighted face as he smiled down at her.

“Ah, there she is!” The man proclaimed, as he bent down to nonchalantly brush the snow and debris off the back of the poor girl’s coat. He clicked his tongue when he realized the damage was already done. “I’m afraid you really made a mess of yourself, sweetheart.”

“No, let go!” She screamed defiantly as she rolled over, her weak fists flailing wildly as Alastor swung his leg over her pale body and straddled her waist, effectively avoiding the fury of her kicking legs.

“Hell— Charlie,” He gasped, as he took her hands into his in order to stop her powerless assault, the trembling fingers were screaming for warmth, practically about to fall off. “Your hands are freezing!”

There was a prang of raw fear in the man’s chest as he felt the woman’s shivering touch. Her perfect skin somehow rivaled the snow in shade, evidence that perhaps he had taken this little game of theirs too far. He clenched his jaw as the memories of Charlie’s fall in the ice crossed his mind and killed his mood.

“No! Get off me!” Charlie huffed, breathlessly, the fight dying in her tired limbs as she squirmed pathetically beneath him. Alastor merely shook his head at the girl’s antics.

“Come now, darling. No one likes a sore loser.” He sighed, attempting to lure the poor thing into wasting all her energy while he had her compromised in a manageable position. It’d be easier to drag her back to the car if she was spent and exhausted after all.

“This isn’t over!” She insisted, angry tears slipping from her lashes as she struggled to catch her breath. Alastor sighed, the sight of her in distress pulling at his heart strings as he looked down at her.

“I’m afraid it is, dear.” The man corrected her, an uncompromising expression adorning his sharp features. “I’m not letting your stubbornness get you killed. You had your fun now it’s time to call it quits.”

Just when Alastor had thought the wildfire was finally losing her spark she suddenly sprung up, her skull cracking against his and sending him tumbling over as he groaned painfully.

“Agh—!” He wailed as his hand reached up to check for blood, luckily he found nothing but a wicked migraine and a disoriented field of vision.

“Ow...” The girl groaned as she stumbled to her feet, clutching her head as she proceeded to make a break for it, scurrying up the hillside. She couldn’t believe that move worked, she found herself laughing as she ran. “That one’s from my dad!”

“Charlotte!” Alastor called out as he struggled to his feet after her.

“No one likes a sore loser, Al!” Charlie spat back as she weaved in and out of the trees, feeling the man hot on her tail as she raced on.. 

Suddenly, the sound of mechanical roaring could be heard just below them, the sound vibrating the earth and re-energizing Charlie’s very soul. The girl gasped as she looked down the hillside seeing a flashy, red, 1969 Dodge Charger winding along the mountain road at a frankly illegal speed. She felt her heart soar at the very sight.

Her prayers had been answered in abundance!

If she could get their attention there was no way Alastor could chase after her without drawing unwanted attention onto himself in the process. In her desperation to get closer to the elusive car she lost her footing in the wet snow.

“Ah!” Charlie gasped as she tumbled down the cliff side in a bruising display. She sputtered at the bottom, spitting out a mouthful of leaves and snow as she looked up, the asphalt road now just a few feet away.

_Well, that’s one wave down a mountain._

“Charlie, don’t—!” Alastor called out desperately from the top of the cliff side. His eyes wild as he nervously glanced between her and the approaching car. 

_Don’t?_ Charlie scoffed. Oh sure, whenever she’s got the field advantage he finally loses the smug aura and tries to bark orders her way. Well, too bad because she was beyond done with his craziness. The rattled girl picked herself up, and shot into the middle of the street without a second thought.

“Please—! Please stop the car!” She cried, waving her arms wildly as her eyes pleaded for help. 

She left it up to god as to whether or not the speeding car would flatten her like a pancake.

  


* * *

  


The hooker in the passenger seat was busy counting his night’s profits when suddenly his boss slammed on the breaks, causing the car to come to a screeching halt. The boy gasped, hands moving to brace himself on the door handle as the car hydroplaned on the slippery roadway before coming to a stop in the middle of both lanes.

“The fuck was that!?” The driver roared, concerned that his shiny, new joyride had taken damage more than anything else.

The feminine man to his side had to run his hand along the window, ridding the icy surface of its cloudy film to look out at what had run out in front of them. His eyes widened as he spotted a girl with a death wish standing with her arms up just a few feet away. She looked feral. Her questionable clothing choice was ripped and torn as her hair swayed wildly in the wind. There was no doubt in the young man’s mind that this woman had a few screws loose.

Still, he knew vulnerable blondes were just his boss’s type.

“Val, don’t—” The boy with platinum blond hair attempted to argue when the driver caught sight of the trembling girl outside the car. “Let’s just go. You don’t know anything about this broad anyway.”

“I know she’s got big tits.” Valentino smirked as he rolled down his window. “You know I’m always looking for new girls, Angel baby. Besides— who could say no to such a pretty face.”

Angel bit his cheek as he crossed his arms uselessly and looked down dejectedly. He wanted to argue further but he had long learned to keep his mouth shut once Valentino had made up his mind about something, not unless he wanted his backside painted black and blue.

At the sound of the car window being rolled down the girl in disarray quickly scurried to the other side of the vehicle, her legs felt like they were weighed down by ten tons as she limped along the road. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she noticed the driver of the vehicle looking out at her in feigned concern.

“You lost, sweetheart?” The man in the flashy attire inquired, his elbow casually perched on top of the open window sill, as he looked over at her from behind his crimson hued sunglasses. “Not too many people wander this far out.”

That is, not unless they had some shady business to take care of.

“I— Please, sir... Could you give me a ride into town? It’s an emergency.” Charlie stuttered as she flocked to the man’s car door, her hands reaching out to wrap around his arm in desperation. Her freezing cold hands were apparent even through the sleeve of his gaudy overcoat as they clung to him tightly. The man smiled, loving himself a woman in need.

“Easy, babygirl. You’re in good hands.” The sketchy man reassured her as he tapped her nose, the patronizing undertone flying right over Charlie’s head as her focus stayed fixed on just getting herself the hell out of dodge. “Get in. We’ll get you taken care of, sweet cheeks.”

Charlie proceeded to thank the man excessively as he unlocked his passenger side door.

“Angel, babe, let the girl in on your side, would you?” The man barked, not so much asking as he was ordering. The younger man mentally groaned, as he pushed open his door the freezing winter air doing nothing to lift his mood as he waved the girl over disinterestedly. The tall street walker bent down, pulling the lever on the side of his chair to push his seat down and allow the naive broad into the back seat.

Charlie bowed her head graciously as she approached the man wearing skimpy, skin-tight clothes. She ducked her head as she crawled into the tiny backseat. The provocative man readjusted his seat before plopping back down in it’s dark leather, closing his door behind him. Charlie noticed his face twisting bitterly in the side mirror but decided she had other things to worry about.

“Do either of you have a phone I could borrow?” She asked, leaning forward as her eyes looked between the two men hopefully. Angel moved to reach into his pocket, digging around for his cellphone when Valentino quickly cut him off.

“I’m afraid there’s no signal this far up into the mountains, puddin'. You’ll have to wait until we get back to the club.” Valentino told the girl as his hand reached out to halt Angel’s arm. Angel looked to his boss, immediately reading his tight expression and pursing his lips as he removed his hand from his pocket. His cellphone vibrating silently in his pocket as a text came through.

“Oh,” Charlie remarked dejectedly, but she smiled politely anyway. “Ok...”

As Valentino shifted the car back into gear and got them back on the road Angel couldn’t help but eyed up the suspicious looking broad in the backseat. His eyes flicking up and down her silhouette as he leaned back into his headrest. 

“So uh, you Amish or something?” He asked, as they drove down the mountain side. His nails tapped skeptically against the armrest as he clipped his tongue.

“Huh?” The girl asked with a tilted head, a humorless smile crossing her face as she attempted to make sense from his unusual question.

“What's with the get up?” Angel rephrased his question, eyebrows knitting together as he stared pointedly at her thick, tea length skirt. “You look like you just escaped a polygamist cult or some shit.”

“Haha…” Charlie laughed nervously at the question. She knew if she had any sense she would tell these people everything, spill her heart so at least someone would know her story and be able to bring it to justice should she not be able to, but for some ungodly reason she bit her tongue, deciding to keep it to herself for now, subconsciously deciding to protect her kidnapper. “—Something like that I guess.”

Angel offered her a humorless scoff as he pursed his lips in the rear view mirror, taking the women’s statement as a poorly delivered joke as he stared at her doubtfully. Luckily, he didn’t press the girl any farther, for that Charlie was grateful as she shifted uncomfortably in the claustrophobic back seat. 

“So, uh— How far is this club of yours anyway?”

  


* * *

  


Charlie wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep. 

Her head was slumped against a small icy window, her slow tired breaths casting fog over the crystal surface as she drifted in and out of consciousness. Her body felt like it was made of bricks, her muscles sore and exhausted from her escapades in the forest, and sleep was far too tempting to decline.

Suddenly, she was pried out of her tired stupor when the car door she had been partially braced against was swung open, her body almost tumbling down to the snowy gravel outside if not for her seat belt. She gasped, looking up to find the man with bleach blonde hair. The tall, androgynous man caught her by the shoulder, as she reached to undo her seat belt clasp. As he pulled her from the vehicle he looked over the roof of the car watching as his boss started towards the door of the rundown strip club. The shady man’s attention was focused on his phone as he tapped away at the screen, texting his business partner flirtatiously. Angel took a deep breath before finding what little courage he had left.

“Whatever you do, don’t drink the fucking liquor.” Angel warned in a hushed voice, eyes flickering nervously back over his shoulder as he pulled Charlie along.

“What?” The girl gaped, her mind still muddled with sleep as she reached up to rub her eyes, Angel still stringing her along the torn up parking lot.

“You want to go home don’t you?” Angel huffed, grabbing her shoulders as he shook her to her senses. Charlie merely nodded cluelessly at his question. “Then don’t let that bastard get in your head with a spiked cocktail, capeesh?”

Charlie barely had time to nod her head in understanding before they were interrupted by an impatient roar sounding from the doorway of the club.

“Angel!” Valentino suddenly called in a harsh voice. Immediately the lanky boy dropped his hold on Charlie and sheepishly scrambled to the club’s door. Charlie hesitantly followed his lead, her feet dragging on the broken concrete as she took in her surroundings.

The sleazy joint was a mess of neon lights, flickering in obnoxious patterns from the side of the main road they had peeled off from. The club itself was a tall one story strip of a building, wider than it was tall, sitting alone in the crispy night air with no other businesses in eyesight.

On a good day, Charlie wouldn’t have given the eyesore a second look but today was definitely not a good day, and she was desperate for the shotty building’s protection from both the cold and her pursuer. Beggars aren’t choosers after all. The lost girl followed the heavy bass of pop and hip hop music as well as Angel’s lead into the muggy establishment.

“Sir!” She heard Angel answer the taller man as he let the glass door nearly clock her in the face on her way in. The girl sputtered, just barely catching the door as stepped inside.

The front lobby was small though it featured a tall ceiling. The smell of cheap booze and marijuana spilling out from a massive grand room at the end of the hall. The party room was filled with short platforms featuring silver poles adorned with half naked women, a slew of dubious looking characters partaking in the wide variety of vices the establishment had on offer.

Charlie flushed a warm red, her eyes dropping to the floor as she quickly shuffled after Angel, having decided she trusted this man more than anyone else here.

“If you’re so interested in the new girl then you’re more than welcomed to join us.” Valentino offered wickedly, as he exhaled a cloud of smoke from his cigarette, smiling sinisterly down at the younger boy. His body was leaning against the tall reception desk in the center of the room as he snaked a hand under the hooker’s chin, pulling him into his villainous snare.

“No, no, no.” Angel quickly rejected the offer as he stepped back from the menacing man, always happy to put some distance between him and Valentino when the pimp was in one of his moods. “That’s all you. I was gonna grab a smoke out back.”

“Hmm.” Valentino remarked disinterestedly as he waved the boy off. “Next time then. Oh, and on your way out, tell the boys in the back to whip up the usual for the little lady.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m on it.” Angel nodded, his arms winding around himself self consciously as he turned around. The bottle blonde offered Charlie one last concerned look before stepping around her and turning into the next room.

Suddenly, she was alone with Valentino, well that was if she didn’t count the girl loudly gossiping on the phone at the front desk. Charlie stepped closer noticing a beautiful dark skinned girl with vibrant, two-tone hair as she squealed animatedly into the phone, far too absorbed in her conversation to notice or care that anyone had even arrived.

“You’ll have to excuse Velvet.” Valentino sighed with a shrug as he shoved his phone back into his back pocket. “She’s got the line tied at the minute. I’m sure you don’t mind waiting.”

“Couldn’t I just use your phone?” Charlie inquired, eyes glued on the bedazzled smartphone case that peeked out from the man’s pocket.

“—I’m afraid it just died.” The man quickly answered, his steel gaze making Charlie bow her head cowardly as her objection was found dead on arrival, the man smiled at the sight. “Not to worry, sweetheart. Velvet will be done soon... probably.”

Charlie bit her cheek as she hugged herself tightly. Her eyes nervously flickering toward all the entrance points, half expecting Alastor to run into the room any minute and half of her suddenly hoping he would.

Valentino radiated a foul energy. Discomfort rattling Charlie’s bones just from his sheer presence alone. Being under his gaze made her feel like a piece of meat at auction, like a bug under a microscope. Her instincts told her to run but where else did she have to go? She just needed to get her phone call and she’d be home free.

“I guess I can wait,” She eventually relented. “—But only for a few minutes!”

“Wonderful!” Valentino praised, quickly spinning the girl around and ushering her down a long hallway. “Have a drink while you wait, it’ll help you relax, hun.”

Charlie felt herself tensed up as she was coaxed into a private room, the lights of which were near nonexistent apart from the colorful back lights that shifted between red and purple hues. She gasped as Valentino pushed her effortlessly onto a long, sleek lounge chair on the side of the room. 

As if on queue with the man’s statement a small, nearly invisible man entered the room. Placing a variety of liquor bottles and glasses on the coffee table in the center before sheepishly leaving without a single word. Valentino shrugged off his lavish fur coat before he leaned downed, pushing the martini glass across the table towards the girl with a devilish smile.

“I...” Charlie attempted to argue, before she saw the uncompromising look in the man’s eye. Something telling her that he wasn’t the kind of man to take no for an answer. She sighed, taking the glass reluctantly as he offered it out to her. “Thank you, sir.”

“So, tell me about yourself. What brings a girl like you all the way out here?” Valentino asked as he leaned back in the chair opposite of Charlie, kicking his legs up as he breathed in another puff of his smoke.

Charlie merely shrugged as she attempted to wave off the potent stench of cigarette smoke. The scent brought tears to her eyes as she wheezed pathetically.

“I... I ran away from home.” She coughed, keeping her answer purposefully vague. “I got tied up with someone who was no good, and now I just want to go back.”

“Go back to what?” The man manipulatively inquired, one leg hiking over the other as he played with the silky feather dangling off his scarlet hat.

“My parents, I guess.” Charlie answered weakly with a shrug. Pretending to take a sip from her glass before setting it aside of the table.

“The ones you were running away from in the first place, I take it? Can’t say that makes much sense.” The business man remarked, his voice sounding emotionally removed as he analyzed her situation callously.

“No...” Charlie awkwardly laughed at the man’s blunt honesty as she bit her lip. “I guess it doesn’t.”

“Screw them.”

“What?”

“Screw all of them.” Valentino repeated with vigor, suddenly sitting up as he spoke animatedly, his arms moving in a passionate fury. “Anyone who’d lead you to such depravity couldn’t possibly love you, poor thing. Good riddance I say, they don’t deserve you, babygirl.”

Charlie shrank into the lounge chair meekly. Her lips pursed together as her hand trailed up her arm in discomfort. She felt small. Like she was the most predictable person this man had ever seen. One look and he immediately saw right through her. Adequately analyzing her every relationship and cultivating her self doubt.

“You... aren’t wrong.” She sighed quietly as she stared off into her wine glass.

“If you want my advice, don’t call them— leave them to sweat a little longer.” Valentino insisted, leaning over to put his cigarette out on the ashtray on the other end of the low coffee table.

“Huh?” Charlie scoffed as she straightened her back and tilted her head skeptically.

“Show them who’s in charge.” Valentino doubled down as he stood up, slowly swaying over to the other side of the room before plopping down beside the stray girl. “Surely, a young, beautiful lady like yourself, doesn’t need her folks breathing down her neck.”

“Well, no—” Charlie admitted reluctantly, only to be cut off when the man pressed a finger to her plump lips, promptly shushing her.

“You’ve got the world in front of you, babydoll!” He spoke encouragingly, his eyes vibrant and convincing despite all the red flags. “—And I know you’re brave enough to reach out and take it.”

“You... think so?” Charlie inquired sheepishly yet hopefully. Her tired features briefly revitalized as a smile pulled at her lips.

“Without a doubt in my mind.” Valentino nodded, his hand reaching up to boop the girl’s rosy nose as he smiled dastardly. Charlie scrunched her face in response as she looked down at her hands, fiddling together nervously in her lap.

“Listen—” The man suddenly proposed, his arm thrown over the couch while the other gestured flamboyantly in the air. “I have a room in the back. I have food, water, everything you need and more. It’s all yours. I just need you to do a little something for me.”

“For you?” Charlie curiously asked as she laughed awkwardly, her smile becoming tight and uncomfortable the more he leaned into her personal space.

“Nothing much.” Valentino shrugged dismissively as he reached out to toy with the girl’s golden curls. “I just need you to keep a few clients' company when I ask— service them, if you will.”

“Oh...” Charlie replied flatly. Her polite smile dying on her lips as she was brought crashing back down into this disturbing reality. She immediately attempted to lean back as she waved her hands wildly in rejection. “I think there’s been some miscommunication, Mr. Valentino. I’m not that kind of girl. I’ve never done anything like that.”

The man waved off her concerns like a police citation. He laughed as he yanked her back to him by the arm, his nails digging painfully into her flesh, refusing to let her go.

“Not to worry, babycakes. I have no problem breaking you in myself.” He so generously offered, his drippy sweet voice grating on Charlie’s eardrums as he spoke against the shell of her ear. His eyes narrowed like a snake as he backed the vulnerable girl into a corner like so many others before her. 

Charlie shrieked when the man proceeded to throw her down on the sofa, her voice lost to the booming music outside as the man reached up to grab her by the jugular, pinning her in her place, as he clicked his tongue disappointedly.

“It’s a shame that Voxxy isn’t here.” The man sighed dramatically as his sharp nails trailed down her slender throat, trying to pluck the buttons of her blouse free before eventually losing his patience and ripping through the material with brute force. Charlie screeched as she flailed beneath him, her lacy white bra on full display. “You’re just his type. Innocent, busty, virgins with daddy issues are that idiot’s kryptonite.”

Charlie’s nails dug into the man’s arm painfully but still he made no move to let her go. His free hand moving behind him as he reached for his back pocket.

“Oh well, he’ll just have to settle for a recording, I suppose.” Valentino spoke over Charlie’s cries, his hand returning with his perfectly operational cell phone in its grasp as he hit the recording button. “Smile for me, baby! As much as daddy loves to hear you cry—”

“Don’t you dare fuckin’ touch me!” Charlie screamed in blind rage, suddenly punching the bastard in the groin and sending him tumbling over in pain. She gasped as she fell off the couch with him, smashing into the table and sending its contents flying.

“You little bitch—!” Valentino raged, the cocktail of steady intoxicates in his system helping to numb the pain as he reached for the fleeing girl, yanking her down to the floor by her hair. “No wonder nobody fucking wants you, cunt! If you can’t even do this much, what good are you, huh?”

“Don’t—” Charlie choked as she felt the bastard’s greasy hands running up her body, pulling at her tattered clothes till her skin turned to goosebumps, her delicate shoulders now bare in the chilling air. 

Her mind was racing ninety miles a minute, losing all sense of reality as her wild thrashing brought back undesirable memories. The hands of her attacker reached out, triggering horrifying flashbacks that she desperately tried to suppress.

The man in the shed. The feeling of his dirty hands pulling desperately at her body, clawing at her skin and soiling her soul. She could suddenly smell that same disgusting stench of death suffocating her.

She just wanted it to stop— and she had the power to make it stop.

One moment she was gasping for air as Valentino's hands were strangling her neck, the next she was sitting atop his lifeless corpse. Blood splatter on every surface of the room, not one surface void of it’s sticky red hue. Charlie’s heart was still pounding in her chest as she continued to dig the shattered liquor bottle into his pulverized throat, as the man bleed out beneath her one thing was clear.

This had stopped being self defense after the first swing. 

She wanted this. She wanted him dead, to watch the light drain from his eyes. To make him feel as dehumanize as he had made her feel. She reveled in the euphoria of that moment, desperate to relive the thrill and satisfaction of his death by repeatedly plunging the glass into his cold dead body. 

She felt powerful and the smile on her face was damning.

“Hey, Val, can I— Oh, my fuckin’ god!” Charlie blinked at the familiar voice. The grin immediately vanished from her face as the sound snapped her out of her state of psychosis. She looked back at the tall blonde man who had stepped into the room, unaware of what he was about to come across. Angel immediately ran to the man’s limp body. Throwing Charlie off him with a hard shove before pressing his ear against his beatless chest.

“You crazy bitch, you fuckin’ killed him!” Angel snapped as he straightened his back. Hands flying up to his face as he took in the massacre under the neon lights. Charlie sputtered as she sat up on her knees, her bloodied hands shaking in front of her.

“I-I thought he was going to kill me!” She tried to defend herself, reaching out to Angel only to have her hand slapped away. The feminine man looked at her in absolute horror.

“Like hell that bastard would off his shiny new merchandise! I mean— slap you around a little sure, but he wouldn’t do anything like this!” The hooker cried out, as he waved his arms around in a heated fury.

Suddenly the hooker’s expression turned horrified, eyes wide as his hands pressed against his temples.

“Oh man, if Vox finds out about this though y—”

Before Angel could finish his statement a pair of arms reached out from behind him, one pulling him back into a choke hold while the other ran a hunting knife across his jugular. The cut was so deep that the boy immediately fell dead and limp to the floor in front of the girl. Charlie gasped, flinching when his body hit the floor as she looked up.

“Found you.” Alastor spoke breathlessly, as he stepped over the smorgasbord of death. The man bent down as he wrapped the girl’s arm in a breakable grip. “Get up, we’re leaving.”

Believe it or not Charlie wanted to go with him. After all the trauma she had just endured she was more than ready to admit defeat. Suddenly, Alastor’s obsessive doting and smothering attention felt like sanctuary, but still something didn’t sit right with her.

“No, he— he tried to help me!” Charlie cried, looking back at Angel’s lifeless eyes longingly.

“He was also a witness.” Alastor huffed, pulling Charlie along with an unreadable expression. The girl thrashed in his arms as she tried to run to the dead man’s side.

“He was good!” She wailed, feet dragging on the floorboards, leaving grooves in the polished wood. “We can’t just leave him like this— it’s wrong!”

“Charlie— look at me.” Alastor snapped, spinning the girl around and shaking her by the shoulders. “He’s dead. Throwing him a funeral doesn’t change shit.”

Charlie’s wide eyes were glued on Alastor, seeing the impatience and anger seeping through the cracks of his gentlemanly mask. She had clearly pushed him to the limit of what he was willing to tolerate. 

“Unless you want to find yourself taking a lethal injection in the state penitentiary you’ll put one foot in front of the other before anyone else comes, understand?”

Charlotte pursed her lips together, nodding in the affirmative as the tears silently beaded down her face, still it wasn’t enough to appease the man.

“Use your words, Charlotte.” Alastor raised his voice firmly, wanting to hear the stubborn woman verbally acknowledge her own compliance.

“I understand.” The girl croaked as she frantically nodded her head and weakly stumbled into the man’s chest. “I’ll go.”

“Brilliant. Up you go.” Alastor chimed emotionless, the sense of urgency taking over him entirely as he pointed towards an exit sign on the far wall. “Out the back door now, and keep your head down.”

After making sure the coast was clear, the two of them wasted no more time as they ran out the backdoor. Alastor ran ahead and pulled open the passenger side door of his car that was parked haphazardly in the middle of the ratty parking lot

“—And Charlie,” Alastor called out as he hastily ushered her into his truck, waiting till the girl had pulled on her seat belt and he had her undivided attention before he spoke again. “If you even think of running away again, I’ll give you a reason to hate me.”

Charlie blinked as she sheepishly processed the man’s warning. Alastor didn’t linger too much longer on the topic though, instead quickly turning on his heel as he slammed her door closed and hurried to the other side of the vehicle.

Charlie was starting to think the world was just riddled with monsters and that she just might be one of them.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eyyy! Another chapter down! I really didn't think I'd finished this chapter this week because of school but Ghostly_Mia and their lovely comments really convinced to try my damnedest, so we can all thank them for that! <3
> 
> Still, the next update might be slower than usual until my classes end next week, so I hope you guys understand!
> 
> Please comment down below and let me know what you think! Until next time! Cya!! :)


	6. Lost Then Found

_No wonder nobody fucking wants you!_

Even dead, that bastard Valentino still haunted her. Charlie could still feel his grimy hands on her exposed skin, his suffocating weight pressed against her throat, and his blood meshed between her fingers.

Charlie clutched the jacket Alastor had offered her tight around her shoulders, wondering how she’d be able to wash the blood out of it later, that is if she could even manage to do that.

_If you can’t even do this much, what good are you?_

Valentino’s voice bled into that of her father’s and then into a chorus of her countless critics. Charlie shrank into her car seat, suddenly feeling small and insignificant.

Couldn’t she do anything right?

“Charlie?” She heard Alastor suddenly called out from the driver’s seat. The broken girl tore her eyes away from the mountain’s eerie night time scenery, meeting his gaze. Only realizing that tears were pooling from her eyes when they suddenly came tumbling down her cheeks.

Alastor looked at her with wide eyes, his eyebrows furrowing in concern as he quickly pulled his truck over onto the side of the empty dirt road. As soon as he shifted the car into park the man moved to unbuckled Charlie’s seat belt, pulling the teary-eyed girl across the bench seat and into his arms.

“Hey, now— What’s all the fuss for?” He cooed softly as Charlie let the water works fall like a long repressed rainstorm. Her hands instinctively reached up and wrapped around Alastor’s neck as she wailed. The man gently hushed her cries with a flurry of doting kisses atop her head. 

“Please don’t be mad at me.” Charlie choked out, her fists digging into the man’s cotton sweater as her tears stained his tie beneath. Alastor’s eyebrows pulled together in confusion at her words.

“Why would you think I’m mad at you?” He asked, his hands running up her neck in a soothing trail.

Charlie’s face tensed up in frustration at the question, cursing the man for playing dumb to her concerns as she suddenly pulled back.

“You haven’t hardly looked at me since we left!” Charlie balked, her tiny angry fists beating harmlessly against the man’s shoulders. Alastor merely blinked at her completely dumbfounded.

“Charlie—” The man spoke, his eyes committed to hers as he adorned a tense smile, his expression almost pained. “You’re half nude...”

Charlie must have looked like an idiot. The girl faltered as she looked down realizing that even with Alastor’s jacket her bra continued to peek through the opening, leaving little to the imagination. Still, for some reason, she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

“Oh—” Charlie replied, making no move to better conceal herself. “So, wait— you aren’t mad I ran away?”

Alastor looked down at the girl skeptically, possibly wandering if she was in her right mind, if not then at least they had something in common.

“Wasn’t that the point?” He answered with a faint chuckle. As his hand trailed up to wind around a strand of the girl’s long golden locks. “You gave me a run for my money, you brilliant girl! I thought it was quite the thrill myself.”

Charlie shook her head in disbelief, not buying the man’s answer in the slightest.

“Then why? Why the sour face?” She pressed him further, leaning in as she clutched tightly on the man’s shirt. “It’s not right— seeing you without a smile.”

“You expect me to be happy to find you assaulted?” Alastor retorted dryly, clenching his jaw as his cheerful mask seemed to slip. The man’s gaze started to drift into the distance, out at the moonlight scenery just past Charlie’s silhouette. His mind started to wander off to more wicked things the longer the thought of her having to endure such boorish abuse lingered.

“Oh...” Charlie blinked, perking up. She reached out a small soft hand to the man’s cheek pulling his gaze back to her’s, grounding him with ease. “That’s why?”

Alastor smiled sincerely at her question, his hand reaching up to graze over her own.

“I’m mad that I allowed you to put yourself in that position in the first place,” Alastor explained, bringing her gentle hand to his lips before pressing a tender kiss across its surface. “—And, if I’m being honest, I’m envious that you killed that insect before I could.”

Charlie eyebrows knitted together at the mention of Valentino and her psychotic break. She looked away bashfully but at no point did shame or regret cross her mind. Even now, removed from the traumatic situation and in safe hands, reflection did not budge her resolve.

He deserved to die.

“Still—” Alastor spoke up, catching Charlie’s attention once again, as he stared at her utterly mesmerized. “You were quite the sight.”

Charlie said nothing, her mind both running a mile a minute at the same time as it proceeded to flat line entirely. Alastor opted to seize the opportunity, taking advantage of the girl's wordless stupor as he brought his hand to her cheek, smearing the blood that she had failed to clean off her face, giving her cheeks an unnaturally pigmented blush.

“Red suits you, my dear.” The man complimented, his eyes dancing between hers as he ate up the trance-like look in the woman’s eyes.

“Careful—” Charlie scoffed awkwardly, biting at her bottom lip as she looked away. “Someone might assume you find me attractive.”

“Oh? Have I not made that obvious?” He answered with a crooked smile, causing Charlie’s stomach to swarm with butterflies. “I imagine you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t.”

The flustered girl pursed her lips as she busied herself with needlessly micro analyzing the lint clinging onto the man’s coat tail, her head looking down sheepishly as she pouted.

“Rosie said you thought of me more like a child.” She mumbled between her lips, reluctant to voice such a petty grievance. Alastor’s face morphed with distaste and confusion at the accusation.

“I’m not nearly as fond of children as I am of you.” He laughed, his expression tight and uncomfortable by the very thought of kids. The man eventually sighed as he looked into the back of his mind. “Though, I also may also believe that you have been grossly neglected by those who should have fostered your self confidence and potential.”

His words hit her like a truck. No one in her life had ever truly believed in her. Practically from conception she was designated a fuck up and an embarrassment to her family’s name. She was a lost cause in the eyes of everyone around her and that fact had slowly taken its toll on her. 

“I suppose her assessment is not entirely unfounded.” Alastor eventually confessed, looking up at the car’s ceiling as he scoffed. “I admit I feel the need to nurture the most deprived parts of you.”

Honestly, Charlie liked the sound of that. She could no doubt use some nurturing in her life. Something to stop her from being just another speck of dust, aimlessly floating through the cosmos. It was obvious that her life before lacked that desired anchor.

Still, she offered a humorlessly scoff, waving off the seriousness of the man’s admission. However, Alastor refused to let her sidestep the truth, not allowing her to play victim to her fears.

“Charlie—” He insisted, raising her head by the chin to meet his somber gaze. “You are much stronger than you realize, my dear. You could have this whole town in shambles if you only tried.”

“Like you do?” The girl huffed, her voice sounding more curious than disgusted and not as she intended. Since when did being repulsed by this man and his sick hobbies come so unnaturally to her? She bit her lip angrily, slowly realizing her own mask was faltering.

They both already knew his answer, he didn’t need to voice it. Instead, Alastor pressed her with another question.

“Would you like that?” He inquired, his hands toying with the low zipper of the coat around her shoulders. He looked up, flashing her a small knowing smile, any bigger and he feared she’d pull back, sensing his trap. “To be in control. To be feared?”

Charlie was quiet as she twiddled her thumbs, biting her cheeks as she looked out the chilled glass window to their side. Her eyes glazed over as she imagined herself in Alastor shoes, to have his sense of purpose and unapologetic approach to life. 

She was envious.

“What if I said I did?” Charlie retorted, fingers clenching tightly into a fist as she forced the words out. “What then?”

Alastor’s smile dared to twist wider as he watched the girl with an unwavering gaze. He reached up, cupping her cheek as he leaned into her warmth.

“Then,” The man whispered, his voice like honey, sweet and cementing. “I’d pave the way for you— of course.”

Surprising even herself, it was Charlie who closed the distance between their yearning lips. Summoning all the courage she could muster she sprung up onto her knees, pulling Alastor’s face up to meet hers as she ensnared him with her eager kiss.

Even Alastor seemed thrown for a loop by her passionate initiative, though he was far from objecting. The man welcomed the younger woman as she straddled his waist and stole his lips. His hands weaved up her back as he silently rewarded her bravery by taking the reigns and guiding her lips with his own. 

It was only when Charle’s affections turned more scandalous did Charlie feel Alastor begin to have second thoughts. Somewhere in the heated flurry of their embrace Charlie had started grinding against the man, her skirt having long risen up as she rocked against the man’s hips suggestively. The brazen girl soon found herself biting back moans of delight as she moved against him, her stifled gasps seemed to break Alastor out of his spell.

The man broke their kiss, a pained expression flashing across his face as he seemed to be fighting some inner demons. Charlie wouldn’t let him get far of course, not after how far she’s already come.

“Wait, it’s ok!” Charlie insisted, reaching out and clinging onto the man for dear life, refusing to let him get cold feet now. Alastor shook his head, clearly not having it.

“It is most definitely not ok.” He retorted, his expression looking frazzled and fevered as he seemed to look everywhere but at the girl currently locking her legs around his waist. “This is hardly a proper place or circumstance for a young woman to lose her virginity.”

Charlie rolled her eyes, her face narrowing in impatience as she pouted at the uncooperative man. The brooding girl locked her arms around Alastor’s neck, using her body weight as she fell back into the bench seat, the force causing the man to find himself now knelt between her legs as she laid sprawled out before him. Charlie bent her knees, pulling Alastor in closer till their groins were once again pressing against one another. The reluctant man buckled above her as Charlie swallowed down an audacious moan at the delightful friction.

“I’m not sentimental.” She sighed, her voice sounding high and breathy as she stared up at the man. “I don’t mind.”

“I mind.” Alastor quickly huffed out. His nails digging painfully into the old leather seat. His eyes squeezed shut as he focused on taking slow and steady breaths. The man had just started to reach back to unravel Charlie’s slender legs from around him when he was quickly interrupted by her sulking voice.

“You’re saying you don’t want me?” Charlie asked weakly, her voice almost lost to the roaring wind outside if Alastor hadn’t already been so hyper fixated on her every action.

Alastor breathed a tired and frustrated sigh, as he cracked his eyes open begrudgingly. The sight there awaiting him was simply criminal.

Charlie was a beautiful mess tossed across his car seat. Her hair was fanned out in disarray against the cushion seat beneath them, her skin blushing like a watercolor painting as her chest rose and fell with her labored breaths. Her big doe eyes staring up at him with a purity that just begged to be corrupted. 

Alastor immediately turned to putty at the sheer sight of her.

“That’s not fair and you know it.” The man groaned, his pained expression turning almost humored. Alastor brought a hand up to hold her chin in place as he leaned in. An impressed grin playing on his lips. “What a manipulative and conniving little thing you are, aren’t you?”

Charlie pinched her lips together, her face scrunching up at the accusation, she tossed her head to the side, exposing her neck as she bashfully peered up at him from the corner of her eye.

“Please..?” She whispered, her hands trailing down the man's chest as she pulled at the man’s sweater weakly. “I want this— I want you.”

Alastor bit his cheek, swallowing the knot in his throat as he buried his inhibitions. The man chuckled sinisterly as he leaned down, his lips ghosting over the girl’s small, flushed ear.

“Now that’s just down right evil, Ms. Charlie.” He whispered, mirroring her own lewd tone of voice causing chills to shoot up the girl’s spine.

Charlie wasted no time, savagely ushering the man out of his sweater and freeing his white button up beneath. Alastor wasn’t far behind her, reaching up after shedding his tie and undoing the first few buttons on his button up to pull down the girl’s bra. 

“Ah!” Charlie gasped as her breast met the freezing air. She muffled her own cries when she leaned up, securing his lips in hers again as her fingers toyed with the hair at the base of his neck. 

“Easy.” Alastor chuckled, as he pulled back from her. The woman immediately rerouted to his heated neck as she nipped at the man playfully. Alastor merely scoffed, realizing it was a lost cause trying to reign the girl in.

Charlie was in full pursuit of her goal when she felt her thick layered skirt being hiked up above her waist, a pair of heated palms grazing up her pale thighs and leaving behind a trail of goosebumps in their wake. Still, she wouldn’t let the man’s hands distract her from her affectionate assault on his neck till she felt their warmth traveling south.

The lovesick girl gasped when a rush of cold air suddenly hit her in the most vulnerable place. Looking down, Charlie whimpered desperately as she saw Alastor slipping her lace panties down her legs before kneeling between them. She bit her lip and threw her head back in sheer ecstasy when she felt his slim fingers dip into her warmth.

“Y-You don’t have to—” She rambled in embarrassment as she threw her hands up to cover her face. Alastor refused to let her finish before he chimed back with a knowing tone of voice.

“I insist.” He said with an upturned lip, his teeth just barely peeking through his wicked grin.

The hellbent man continued working his fingers inside the girl. Moving them in experimental patterns as he stretched the virgin hole, each new flick earning him the most delightful ensemble of moans from the mystifying girl. The whole time his eyes couldn’t seem to look away from Charlie’s expressive face, however much she tried to hide it, he was fixated.

“You know, I’ve never been overly interested in this sort of thing— sex I mean.” Alastor chuckled as his fingers played the girl like a fiddle. The man balanced his elbow on one of Charlie’s knees as he rested his cheek in his free palm on top. He stared casually down at her like a piece of meat, reading her like the back of his hand.

He shrugged as he perked up, pushing Charlie’s leg even further apart as he sought a more effective angle. Charlie was squeaking like a chew toy as the man continued speaking above her.

“I’m afraid it’s wonders have always evaded me. Less alluring and more necessary than anything.” Alastor noted, bringing his second hand down to pinch the girl’s twitching clit while his first hand upped it’s pace. He scoffed as he watched Charlie’s eyes roll back into her head as she sputtered.

“Don’t get me wrong, it does wonders to hush nagging thoughts or release stress, but in the end it’s always just a waste of time, isn’t it?” The man admitted, suddenly stopping all his efforts just as Charlie was starting to catch a glimpse of heaven.

The girl cried out in utter agony and disappointment as she moved her hands to see what had just rained on her parade. The sight she found of Alastor staring her straight in the eyes sent a new wave of pleasure rattling through her body.

“And yet—” He whispered in the sudden silence, looking down briefly as he aligned himself against her hot slit before meeting the girl’s wide gaze with a cocky smirk. “Somehow, at this moment I want nothing more than to see you fall apart beneath me.”

“Ah—!” Charlie suddenly gasped, feeling the man’s cock suddenly pushing into her and stealing her breath. She was shocked to find that there was no pain, no adjustment period, only the feeling of complete and utter euphoria. 

Charlie felt tears beading down her face as Alastor continued to push into her at a steady pace. Charlie couldn’t tell you why she was crying, though she imagined it was probably from either sheer bliss or nagging guilt.

“I-I-I— Ah!” Charlie continued to spew absolute gibberish as she practically vibrated in the car seat. Her hands reached up, aimlessly seeking the man’s further embrace which he happily provided.

Alastor grunted as he flashed the girl a knowing smile, weaving his fingers into her own as he pinned her palms down on either side of her head. His hips continued to thrust into her at a blistering pace as they both struggled to catch their breath.

“Atta girl.” Alastor cooed as he saw Charlie teetering on the edge mind numbing pleasure. The man quickly peeled the quivering woman off the car seat and forced her upright, their chests colliding in the night as he proceeded to ruthlessly bounce the women’s hips up and down on his cock.

“Shh—” Alastor suddenly hushed, cupping a hand over Charlie’s gasping mouth, muting her weak cries of buried guilt as he egged on the most irredeemable side of her. “Just let it happen, my dear. Shh, just focus on this— how good you feel.”

How good she feels?

How good she feels to have a man between her legs? To have him gasping for breath? In which case the answer was a resounding yes. She had no issue admitting how amazing that all made her feel. But what about slicing into a man’s neck and watching him bleed out? To feel his weight grow cold and limp beneath her? To feel powerful for once in her goddamn life? How good did that make her feel? Well, then that was an answer she couldn’t bear to admit.

The girl cried out as she snaked her arms around Alastor’s neck for support. Charlie gasped as she witnessed sparks fly behind her eyelids, as she approached her climax. The girl clenched up, scrunching herself into the crook of Alastor’s neck as she let out a sharp needy gasp.

Her body trembled in absolute bliss from the sheer intensity of her orgasm, the pleasure rushing over her in waves as she let it jolt through her entirely. The sensations seemed to cause ripple effects as her body continued to twitch in the aftermath.

Though his signs of sinful delight were much more subdued, Alastor was on cloud nine right alongside her. His nails dug into her porcelain skin as he pulled her hips down into his lap one final time, grunting as he shot his hot seed into the frazzled girl. He groaned, resting his forehead against the woman’s shoulder as he basked in the moment.

They both took a minute to just catch their breath before Alastor eventually laughed, humored by the quiet mumbles of Charlie’s incoherent prayers of gratitude as the sinful girl slowly descended from her post-orgasm high. 

“That’s my girl.” The breathless man cooed, his hands combing through the limp woman’s hair as he attempted to bring her back down to Earth.

His efforts took a few minutes to muster an effect as Charlie found herself somewhere teetering between two realms, but soon she blinked her eyes rapidly as she processed her situation and built up her energy. She slowly pulled back, her hair a gorgeous mess as she looked to Alastor with a tired half-lidded gaze.

“Hi.” Charlie finally spoke, her voice barely above a whisper as she seemed to sway drunkenly from exhaustion and the lingering satisfaction of her orgasm. Alastor chuckled at her disheveled appearance, somehow finding her more breathtaking than ever.

“Hello.” He scoffed, brushing aside a rogue strand of hair from her face as he doted on her. “Welcome back.”

“I… Uh… Well,” Charlie snorted, letting out a girly giggle as she gestured to everything around her. “This was nice, very nice.”

“Oh?” Alastor raised a playful eyebrow, his smile widening as he spoke. “Rave reviews then?”

“Mhm…” Charlie smiled, her eyes heavy as she struggled to keep conscious. Alastor hummed, pleasantly as he maneuvered her out of his lap, keeping her instead propped up against his shoulder as he proceeded to readjust himself into a more presentable.

Upon his self correction the man looked up. Seeing the girl nodding off against his shoulder, though she was still obviously trying to put up an honorable fight. Raising her head each time it collided with his shoulder. Alastor smiled, leaning over to pull the girl’s jacket over her exposed chest and place an affection peck to her forehead.

“Close your eyes, my dear. We’ll be home before too long.” Alastor insisted, turning the key in the car’s ignition as he spoke. “I’ll wake you when we arrive.”

What followed was a nonsensical mess of the english language, Charlie's voice barely audible as she mumbled into the man’s shoulder. In the end Alastor could only make out one word.

“...Good?” The tired girl murmured, causing Alastor to tilt his head curiously.

“Hmm? What was that, angel?” He asked as he maneuvered the vehicle back onto the road. His eyes darting down to steal a few cheeky glances of the girl as he drove. Charlie briefly looked up as she spoke.

“Was...Was I good?” She repeated herself, hiding most of her face against Alastor’s shoulder as she peeked up at him hopefully.

She needed to know, she yearned for some kind of validation. Did she make him feel as good as she did? 

Alastor looked absolutely perplexed by the question, or rather the fact that she even felt the need to ask it. The man took one hand off the wheel, weaving his fingers around her own as he proceeded to lean his head against hers. His thumb running back and forth over her palm as he attempted to reassure the needy girl.

“My dear, you were brilliant.”

With those final words, Charlie was able to nod off with a smile on her squishy face. The faint bumpy terrain and Alastor’s steady breath easing her into a well deserved slumber.

It would turn out Alastor was a liar, as the next time Charlie opened her eyes she was welcomed by a warm bed and the faint stream of light peering in through a window. However, the room was unlike her own, bigger and adorned with timeless knickknacks and oddities. 

Her sleep muddled mind only connected the dots when she felt a low, warm breath ghosting over her shoulder. Alastor’s arm tightened around her waist as he nuzzled into the girl’s golden mane, still snoozing soundly against her back.

Perhaps if Charlie was in her right mind she would have launched out of the bed and away from her kidnapper, reminding herself of all the atrocities he’s committed before her very eyes to shake some sense into her warped mind, but honestly she couldn’t find it in herself to care. The girl merely rolled over and buried her face against the man’s chest. The soft beating of his heart lulling her back into the first peaceful sleep she’d had since her arrival.

In that moment, she couldn’t say there was anywhere else she’d rather be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! Sorry for disappearing on you all like that. I underestimated how much time I needed to finish my classes while simultaneously running into a bit of a narrative road block. The good news is my classes are officially over and updates should be more regular again! In fact this chapter was originally longer but since I didn’t like the pacing I broke it up into two, so the next chapter will be out soon.
> 
> I just want to thank you guys for all your support. Last chapter I got a crazy amount of feedback and it really brightened an otherwise very stressful couple of weeks for me. 💕 On that note, I also want to give a special shout out to **dkmbookworm** over on Twitter for actually drawing some art for this story! I’ve never had anyone do something like that for me before and I was so unbelievably flattered and grateful when I saw it. I need to make a Hazbin specific Twitter account but till then I just hope you to know how amazing that really was, and seeing that really made me get my butt in gear and get this chapter out, so thank you!! ❤️❤️❤️
> 
> With that being said, please leave any comments or ideas you have down below. Until next time! Cya!!


	7. Wicked Women

  


The days that followed felt like a fever dream. 

Since their hunt Charlie seemed to become the apple of Alastor’s eye. The man was constantly pulling her aside and whispering light hearted jokes and tender compliments into her ear. He seemed to struggle to keep his eyes off the girl, from fawning over her as they cooked their nightly dinners to spinning her around anytime his favorite songs played on the radio. 

It was clear to everyone that Alastor was positively smitten— well, seemingly to everyone but Charlie that is.

Charlie was drying her hands against her long pinafore dress when she stepped into the living room, having just finished doing the evening dishes. A burning fireplace warmed the otherwise freezing house, procuring a sigh of bliss from the girl as she basked in it’s heavenly comfort.

Suddenly, Charlie gasped when a hand reached out and pulled her across the arm of the nearby sofa. The girl sputtered as she was pulled into a mischievous man’s lap, Alastor smiled down at her as he playfully pinched her cheek.

“Took you long enough.” He remarked, his other hand moving to set aside the book that he had been reading, his focus shifting entirely onto Charlie.

“I didn’t realize you were waiting on me.” Charlie answered, looking like a fish out of water from her spot perched in the man’s lap. The girl awkwardly moved to straighten out the creases in her dress, strategically avoiding eye contact.

Something about the look of adoration in Alastor’s eyes always seemed to make her lose her senses, something she wasn’t yet sure if she hated or loved about the man, regardless she wasn’t sure she wanted to find out.

“You’ve been eating.” Alastor suddenly pointed out through calm, half lidded eyes. One hand playing with the him of the girl’s ruffled dress skirt while the other ran up her back, sending goosebumps up her spine as he attempted to comfort her pesky anxieties.

God, she felt like she turned to mush just from his gaze alone.

“Huh?” Charlie blinked, the man’s silent affections distracting her from what he was actually saying. Luckily, Alastor had no problem repeating himself.

“You’ve been eating dinner the last few days.” Alastor explained again, looking down at the girl with a cocky smirk stretching across his face. “Your plate is nearly always empty by the end.”

“Oh,” Charlie mumbled, looking away in shame as she pulled a finger to her lips pondering the accusation with a shocked expression. “I... I didn’t think about it to be honest.”

It was true. Strangely enough the menu was the last thing on Charlie’s mind at the dinner table. Rather she was more concerned with Alastor’s foot playfully kicking hers beneath the table, or the heat of his hand resting against her thigh.

“Hmm... Still—” Alastor hummed as he brushed aside the golden curls Charlie was sheepishly hiding behind. He leaned down to meet her gaze as he smiled with pride. “I’m happy. I was worried you’d start to wither away on me.”

“Not quite.” Charlie laughed humorlessly, her mind on the fritz as she felt Alastor’s heated breath against her ear. 

It seemed the man was far from done with their conversation but not everyone in the house was in agreement with that fact. Just as the man opened his mouth to butter the girl up even further he was interrupted.

“Charlie, you missed a dish!” Mimzy called out, causing Charlie to whip her head around to the kitchen doorway.

The short, stocky woman stood confidently, her heel clicking as she tapped her foot impatiently, a fiery scowl decorating her plump face.

“Oh? Uh, ok. I’m coming.” Charlie answered back, standing up from the couch. The act seemed enough to begrudgingly appease the brooding woman as Mimzy turned back into the kitchen, shooting the girl one last threatening look as she turned away.

Before Charlie could turn back down the hall Alastor had reached out, his grip firm on her wrist as he pulled the girl down till she leaned over him.

“Tonight, once you’re finished, join me in my room, won’t you?” He spoked hushly, a hand reaching up to cup the young girl’s chin. “I’d enjoy your company.”

“I wonder— What kind of company are you hoping for?” Charlie chimed shyly despite her bold inquiry. Her eyes on the floor as a cheeky smile tugged at her lips despite all attempts to conceal it.

Alastor said nothing at first, causing Charlie to brave a peek up at him, she felt her heart racing at the sight she found. Alastor was simply transfixed by her, a humored smirk spread across his face as he watched her in utter adoration. Finally, he laughed lightly, shaking his head as he spoke.

“Whatever kind you’re willing to give.”

Charlie felt her face flush at the suggestive undertones of their conversation. She shook her head dismissively at the embarrassment that threatened to consume her, instead biting her lip as she considered the man’s suggestion. After looking up, realizing Mimzy had left the vicinity she finally made up her mind.

“Ok.” She whispered, looking the man in the eyes however sheepishly. 

Alastor beamed as he released his hold on the girl, collecting his book before standing up. Eyeing the girl up and down as he stepped around her and carried on over to the stairs.

Charlie wasn’t afforded a moment to catch her breath or regret her decision when Mimzy suddenly hollered for her again.

“Coming!” Charlie repeated as she quickly flocked to the kitchen, expecting to find maybe a dish or two that she may have overlooked. So you can imagine the shock she felt to see half the dishes she had just cleaned now thrown across the sink covered in fresh grime.

“Better hurry.” Mimzy snapped, the small woman aggressively squirting a bottle of ketchup on top of the mountain of dishes, further soiling them. “Hate for you to be up cleaning all night.”

Charlie just stood there looking dumbfounded as she stared up in horror at the pile of dishes that practically towered over her. Mimzy sighed dramatically as if she was the one inconvenienced, sauntering around the girl.

“Don’t worry.” Mimzy spoke, patting Charlie on the shoulder as she shuffled passed. “I’ll make sure Al doesn’t get lonely.”

Charlie stood aimlessly in the kitchen doorway, alone with a mess of dishes and her boiling blood.

  


* * *

  


Charlie really tried to be the bigger person.

She tried to ignore Mimzy’s harassment and walk the straight and narrow, but the woman was mercilessly persistent in her hateful pursuit. Still, for the longest time Charlie reasoned the poisonous viper would have to lose interest at some point, that was until she woke up to the conclusive sound of snipping scissors. 

The napping girl shot up from her spot on the living room couch, an instinctual pull alerting her, telling her something foul had just happened right beneath her nose. The afternoon sun poured in from the tall windows as she reached back behind her. The haziness of sleep was immediately overthrown by the clarity of horror as her hands ran through her hair or lack thereof.

She screamed as if burned.

The girl sprung up, stampeding to the nearest mirror that hung just beside the front door. She gasped in horror as she stared at her butchered reflection. Her hair having been crudely chopped off the once perfect golden locks now cut unevenly and in complete disarray. She was busy mourning the loss of her precious curls when she spotted Mimzy’s spiteful presence stepping into the mirror’s reflection behind her.

The woman stood proudly wielding a pair of blunt rusted scissors in one hand and a wad of Charlie’s freshly hacked off hair held victoriously in the other.

“Yikes.” Mimzy patronized the traumatized girl. “Good luck, keeping Al’s attention looking like a chewed up Barbie doll.” 

Charlie felt her blood run cold, realizing there was more than one lunatic living in this damn house. When tears started to well up in her eyes she shook her head, not wanting Mimzy to have the satisfaction of seeing her so distraught. Instead Charlie ran up the stairs, side stepping Rosie who had just stepped out of her room to see what all the commotion was about.

The older woman stepped back in shock as she took in Charlie’s compromised appearance. The broken girl skirted passed as she fled into her bedroom, hiding her face in her hands before slamming her door closed behind her.

Rosie’s eyes narrowed as her focus shifted to the women snickering triumphantly at the base of the stairs. 

“Happy with yourself?” Rosie remarked in a leveled voice, peering down from the top of the stairwell at the cackling hyena. Mimzy merely shrugged with a smug grin lining her delighted features.

“Yes, actually.” The woman answered shamelessly, snipping her blunt scissors in an antagonizing display. “—I am.”

  


* * *

  


When Alastor returned home from work the man immediately read the room, sensing a looming upset that hung in the air. The man closed the front door behind him, shutting out the strong winter winds as he leaned over to peer down the hall, looking for any kind of explanation. Rosie peered up from her spot sitting aside the fireplace in the living room, shooting the man a cautionary look. Her eyes darted upwards towards the second floor as she silently pointed him in the right direction.

Alastor’s eyebrows pulled together inquisitively as he stepped into the living room’s doorway. The man eyed Rosie and Mimzy both suspiciously as he shrugged off his winter coat and removed his gloves, tossing the garments aside onto the back of an empty armchair. 

Mimzy refused to meet his gaze, pretending to busy herself with watering the house plants as she hummed distantly. Her reluctance to even acknowledge Alastor’s presence was immediately unnerving as the man deduced it was a clear sign of guilt, like a dog afraid to be scolded.

Alastor bit his cheek as he attempted to mentally connect the dots. He pivoted, his dress shoes clicking back down the hall. The man reached out for the stair railing as he hurried up the steps, the sound of muffled crying apparent from the top of the hallway, growing louder as he approached Charlie's door.

“Charlie?” Alastor called out as he knocked on the creaky wood. The sounds of crying grew hushed, but the girl inside made no move to answer the door. Regardless, Alastor twisted the handle, peering into the room to find a lump hiding beneath a mound of blankets on the girl’s bed.

“Everything alright, dear?” He inquired, stepping into the room as he approached the bed. The lump beneath the cover sniffled as he stepped closer. The man narrowed his eyes curiously at the pitiful sight.

“Charlie?” He asked again, leaning down to lightly peel off the blankets from the trembling form. His efforts revealed the distraught girl and her ruined hair, effectively bringing his investigation to an end. Charlie clung onto her pillow as the more persistent tears split from her puffy eyes. She held tightly onto the cushion’s soft embrace, clutching it close to her chest as she pouted.

“S-She cut it,” Charlie choked out, both of them already aware of who it was she was referring to. “While I was asleep.”

Alastor merely sighed as he ran his thumb over the girl’s cheek to catch her falling tears. The man said nothing, though his eyes shined with clear disapproval and exhaustion. Alastor hushed Charlie’s soft whimpers as he pulled her up out of the bed and strung her along towards the room’s exit.

“Come.” He insisted as he ushered her along. “This is nothing we can’t fix, my dear.”

The older man weaved the weeping girl down the hall into his bedroom, continuing to pull her until they found themselves in the room’s attached bathroom.

Charlie didn’t have the energy left to argue, so she willingly allowed herself to be shuffled into a small stool that the man had pulled out for her. Her large teary eyes wandered aimlessly around the room while the man shuffled through various drawers and cabinets beside her.

The room was big enough to fit them both comfortably even as the man maneuvered about, but small enough to feel every inch had been lived in. Still, a faint echo followed behind every sound. Nearly every surface was polished perfectly, emphasizing the white tile walls, porcelain sink and claw foot tub all accented with sparse black detailing. Charlie was sure to take in every detail, anything to avoid her own reflection.

“Now, let’s see.” Alastor chimed, straightening his back as he approached Charlie from behind, a pair of scissors catching the light within his hands. “I may not be a hairdresser but I’d say I’m far from useless with these.”

Charlie barely offered the man a glance in the mirror’s reflection before her defeated gaze returned to her fiddling fingers in her lap. She sniffled again, reaching up to rub at her red eyes. Alastor felt his heart break at the dreadful sight. The man sighed, already getting to work snipping away at the girl’s choppy locks.

“I’ll have a word with her later.” Alastor insisted, his voice calming and compassionate as his eyes narrowed, scissors snipping away in his hand. “She knows this behavior isn’t going to be tolerated.”

“But it is tolerated!” Charlie scoffed humorlessly in response. “She’s hated me since I came here and it’s only gotten worse since— you know...”

Alastor's eyes briefly flickered up to Charlie’s reflection, watching the girl’s porcelain face turn bright red as she spoke. He couldn’t help the smirk that rose up onto his lips as his focus returned to combing through the girl’s disorderly curls, a suppressed chuckle quickly dying on his lips.

“Why do you insist on leaving me with her? All day everyday.” Charlie pressed on, eyebrows knotting together as she hugged herself tightly for comfort.

Alastor hummed thoughtfully as he stepped in front of the girl, eyes more focused on ensuring an even cut than meeting her passionate gaze, though after a couple more snips the man’s warm eyed finally fell to meet her own.

“Would you like the truth?” He asked, raising an eyebrow as if doubtful she’d even agree. Charlie looked up at the man as if he had grown two heads. Rolling her eyes as she huffed dryly.

“Obviously.”

Alastor couldn’t help but scoff at Charlie’s less than impressed tone of voice as he dusted away the stray strands of hair collecting atop the young woman’s shoulders.

“Believe it or not I think she’s good for you.” He admitted absentmindedly, as he returned to snipping away at her blonde waves. Charlie outright snorted at his outlandish suggestion.

“There’s nothing good about that woman.” She grumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest. Pouting as she hugged her legs firmly. Alastor merely hummed thoughtfully as he structured a suitable response.

“There’s nothing wrong with some healthy opposition in life. It’s builds character and backbone.” Alastor advised, his behavior cheerful as ever as he delivered the backhanded wisdom. Charlie felt her eyebrows pull together as she connected the dots of what he was suggesting.

“So you think I’m a coward.” The girl snapped, an angry breath escaping her lungs as she shot the man a sour look in the mirror’s reflection.

“On the contrary,” Alastor quickly corrected, meeting Charlie’s gaze in the mirror as he stepped back around her, placing his hands against her slim shoulders. “I know you are far from it. Question is do you feel the same way?”

Charlie bit her cheek, hating how hesitant she was to object to his accusation, hating how right the man truly was. If there was ever a word to describe Charlie Magne it was almost certainly cowardice. 

She couldn’t stand up to anyone, not her worst critics or even her best friends and especially not her own parents. She’d be lying to deny Alastor’s blunt yet honest assumption of her character.

“Still— I’ll admit, Mimzy is known to take things too far and clearly this is one of those times. I’ll be sure to make my distaste known.” Alastor eventually compromised, his attention now solely focusing on finishing her hair cut.

Charlie was left to her thoughts as the man silently continued his task, only a faint merry humming coming from the vibrant man as he bobbed around Charlie, thoughtfully assessing the quality of his work.

Maybe he was right. Maybe for once in Charlie’s life she could find it in herself to stand her ground and not allow someone to walk all over her. After all, Magne’s don’t take shit from anyone, right? She had heard her father tell her those words all her life and only now did it truly start to resonate with her. 

As sickening of a situation that she found herself in, it undeniably provided a much needed shift in perspective and clarity.

“Tada!” Alastor proudly proclaimed after a couple minutes, tilting the girl’s chin up to look at her reflection. “Not too bad if I do say so myself.”

Charlie almost didn’t even recognize herself, which seems dramatic considering it was just hair. Regardless, going from waist long hair to an above the shoulder cut almost seemed to change the entirety of her self-image. Her curls were no longer inhibited by the extra weight, now bouncing playfully as she turned her head from side to side. In fact, even she herself felt as if a weight had been lifted, like whoever she had been struggling to pretend she was had finally been ripped away from her.

It was a strangely liberating feeling.

“Would it be inappropriate to admit that I might actually prefer you with short hair?” Alastor suddenly chimed, rinsing off the scissors in the sink before returning them to the drawer which he had found them in.

“No.” Charlie answered quickly, eyes glued on her reflection as she played with her hair, an endearing grin stretched across her angelic face. “It’s nice.”

Seeing that brilliant smile return onto Charlie’s face felt simply infectious as Alastor found himself mirroring her smitten expression. The man couldn’t help himself as he leaned down, pressing a chaste kiss against the girl’s blushing cheek, pulling back to fix the girl with a warm expression.

“My thoughts exactly.”

  


* * *

  


“I suggest you try a new approach.” Rosie advised one day at lunch time, her and Charlie sitting in the open sun room as they were about to enjoy their afternoon meal.

The rays of vibrant light came beaming in through the large glass window panels, weaving around dark wooden beams as they lovingly shined upon the room and it’s many potted plants and herbs. The gentle smell of lavender and chamomile wafting through the cold air as it escaped from Rosie’s tea cup. 

“What?” Charlie squawked gracelessly, still in the middle of taking a sip from her glass of water.

“With Mimzy, I mean. That little psychopath isn’t the type to give up easily. Or do you honestly think giving her a stern talking to will solve your problems?” Rosie sighed, peering into the distant kitchen as she watched the wicked witch in question bustling about as she cleaned. 

Charlie turned to look back from her wicker chair. Her curious eyes followed Rosie’s gaze, defeat washing over her at a mere sight of Mimzy singing gleefully as she wiped off the wooden countertop.

“—And I hope you know that running off and snitching on her to Alastor is only going to make her worse.” Rosie added as she proceeded to take a hesitant sip from her piping hot tea brew.

“So what _am_ I suppose to do then?” Charlie groaned as she held her head in hands hands hopelessly. “I’ve tried everything! I ignore her I’m being too passive, I tell her off and I’m just giving her what she wants. I can’t seem to win either way, so what’s the point?!”

Rosie never considered herself an overly compassionate person. However, it was just unsightly to see a woman so beaten down by life, especially when the solution seemed so obvious. Perhaps she was just in a good mood, or maybe she saw a younger version of herself in Charlie’s lost disposition. Regardless, the older woman sighed against her teacup, as she came to a resolution to offer her advice.

“When I was a girl, my mother had no quarrel popping ill-behaved children.” Rosie shrugged, taking a well mannered bite out of her finger sandwich. Charlie blinked, attempting to find the point the woman was trying to make.

“You want me to pop her?” Charlie scoffed, tilting her head curiously as she emphasized the old fashion word playfully. Rosie merely rolled her eyes, setting her small crustless sandwich back down onto her plate, swallowing before speaking again.

“My advice is to be firm.” Rosie answered pointedly. Reaching for her napkin before politely patting her mouth clean.

“Yeah but... I don’t know if I can do that.” Charlie spoke as she bit her lip thoughtfully. The girl sighed dejectedly as she reached for one of her own tea sandwiches.

“Ow!” Charlie gasped suddenly as she bit down into the spongey bread, immediately recoiling and dropping the sandwich back onto her plate. The girl looked absolutely mortified as she fished out a shining metal prick from her sandwich.

“Oh! There’s my sewing needle.” Rosie remarked nonchalantly leaning over the tea table to pull the shimmering metal spike from the girl’s trembling hands. “I was wondering where that darn thing went.”

“D-Didn’t Mimzy make lunch today?” Charlie mumbled, pushing her plate away and suddenly looking at everything with new skepticism, fearing more booby traps were yet to be unveiled.

“As I said,” Rosie sighed, taking Charlie’s plate as she began fishing through the remaining sandwiches for any more of her precious needles. “Telling Alastor will only make her worse.”

  


* * *

  


Charlie could tolerate a lot, but even she had her limits. 

Her limits would no doubt perplex others. She could tolerate the near constant defamation of her character and even the fruitless attempts on her life, but this was where she drew the line.

“Mimzy!” Charlie shouted as she stormed down the creaky old stairs. Marching into the living room with a blind fury.

Mimzy stood in the center of the room, absentmindedly folding laundry as she lightly danced to her favorite jazz number on the radio. The plump woman rolled her eyes as she heard Charlie’s enraged steps stampeding towards her, taking a long breath as she braced herself.

“What is it, princess?” Mimzy hollered back dryly, popping a piece of bubblegum in her mouth as she kept her focus on her daily chores.

“You did this, didn’t you?!” Charlie fumed, holding up her ruined journal. The notebook Alastor had given her, the one she had been using to record all her thoughts and feelings during her time here. The small leather covered booklet was the one outlet she had to bury her frustrations in, and now it was now soaking wet, the ink smeared and illegible on every page.

“So, what if I did?” Mimzy snorted, shrugging her shoulders dismissively. Charlie saw red as she stalked closer.

“I want an apology.” The younger girl spat, a dark look casting over her eyes as she spoke in a chillingly low voice.

“What?” Mimzy balked, blinking at the girl as if she had lost her mind and hell maybe she was right. Charlie’s usual compassion and patience was currently buried by a boiling rage. After all, she had split her heart into that journal and here Mimzy was drowning it in a bathtub.

“I said—” Charlie repeated herself, this time speaking slowly and emphasizing each syllable. “I want an apology.”

“And why would I do that?” Mimzy asked flippantly, smacking her gum loudly as she continued to carefully fold one of her freshly washed blouses against her chest. Charlie was done being ignored. The girl lashed out, ripping the garment away from the woman before tossing it onto the floor below.

“Because I said so.” Charlie snapped back, her other hand clutching painfully around the spine of her ruined journal as she planted herself like a tree in front of the belligerent woman. 

Mimzy’s eyes narrowed as she eyed the girl up and down, shifting her weight from one leg to the other as she rested her hand on her hip. It seemed even she could tell something was up with Charlie, as if the girl was off balance and unhinged. Mimzy bit her lip as she fixed Charlie with a less than content expression.

“Fine. I’m sorry.” The woman relented, crossing her arms over her chest as she spoke coldly. 

Charlie admittedly didn’t know how to respond. If she was honest with herself, she didn’t really expect to get this far in the first place. Regardless, even Mimzy’s less than convincing apology was enough to satisfy Charlie’s blood lust. The angry girl merely nodded her head, spinning on her heel as she started back towards the stairs.

Of course, she should have known better. After all, Mimzy never knew when to shut her mouth.

“I’m sorry all your journal entries were addressed to a family who doesn’t even like you.”

Charlie vaguely recalls hearing the sound of her last nerve bursting, after that she had spun around slapping the smart ass woman across the face with her ruined notebook. The raging girl took full advantage of her surprise attack, immediately wrestling the stocky woman to the floor and gaining the higher ground advantage.

“You bitch! Shut your goddamn mouth for once in your life!” Charlie screeched, her hands tightening around the woman’s neck as she leaned forward with all her body weight effectively blocking the woman’s windpipe. 

Mimzy screamed as her face soon turned purple, lashing out desperately to try and shake Charlie off of her. The younger girl struggled to avoid Mimzy’s flailing hands, luckily it didn’t seem to matter as Charlie felt numb to the feeling of Mimzy’s manicured nails digging into her skin. She was like a dog with a bone and nothing could stop her now.

“Ladies!” Rosie suddenly hollered over their commotion from somewhere behind them, having rushed to the doorway after hearing Mimzy’s horrible screams, sounding like a dying animal. 

“Charlie, come on now, that’s enough!” Rosie asserted, eyes darting between Charlie and the woman gasping desperately for air beneath her. “I said be firm, Charlie! Not to fucking kill her!”

“Fuck you!” Charlie shrieked back as she refused to let up. Watching with a scornful gaze as Mimzy’s eyes began to roll back into her skull.

She was transfixed.

She felt powerful in that moment, like what she imagined Alastor must feel when he snuffs out a life. For a moment she got a glimpse for herself in Mimzy’s draining eyes, she looked demonic and warped and it definitely suited her.

The vengeful girl was too absorbed in her spiteful pursuit to pick up on Rosie’s garbled screams, the sound of the front door opening and footsteps rushing towards her.

Only _his_ voice seemed enough to pull her out of her own head.

“Charlie, enough!” Alastor suddenly demanded, peeling Charlie off the choking woman. The man was suddenly behind the girl, weaving his strong arms around her slender waist as he lifted her up and off the now unconscious Mimzy.

“Get off me!” Charlie shrieked like a wild animal. Tossing and turning in the man’s firm hold as she attempted to break free. “It’s her fault! She fucking started it!”

“I don’t care who started it, I’m ending it!” Alastor boomed. The man spun Charlie around till he had placed himself between the two girls, effectively blocking Charlie from her target.

The feral girl managed to free herself from his grip with enough persistent squirming, stumbling towards the room’s opening before she spun back around. She was ready to throw herself back into the fray before Alastor raised his voice, stalking towards her with a commanding presence as he towered over her.

Suddenly, Charlie felt pitifully small.

“You’ve done quite enough!” Alastor lectured, the exhaustion in his voice cracking to unveil a stewing fury. “You’ve made your point loud and clear, so now let me make mine.”

Charlie stared up at the man from the tops of her eyes, biting her cheek as she begrudgingly kept her spiraling thoughts to herself, thinking better of interrupting the man. 

“There is no fighting in this house.” Alastor spelt out with a condescending tone as he backed the girl into the hallway wall. “You will _not_ lay your hands on her again. Do you understand?”

Charlie out right scoffed, turning her head away as she crossed her arms and stewed in her silent rage. He was the one who put her in this situation in the first place, and still he had the nerve to patronize her for doing exactly what he wanted her to do? That was rich.

“Charlie, I asked you a question.” Alastor pressed the girl, pulling her chin up to force her to meet his stern gaze and address him directly. “I said, _do you understand?_ ”

Charlie snatched herself out of the man’s cold grasp, fixing him with a look that only conveyed how dead to her he now was.

“Yes, father.” Charlie spat venomously, not bothering to stay and watch Alastor’s gaze fill with immediate distaste as she swatted his hand away and took off up the stairs.

Alastor stood there in the empty hallway, tapping his foot in clear irritation as he mauled over his own words and approach. He clenched his teeth as he replayed her spiteful retort in his head over and over, each time growing more and more critical of his actions.

“Fuck—” Alastor finally groaned, hands running down his face in agony as he turned on his heel to tend to Mimzy.

_One thing at a time._

  


* * *

  


It was some odd hours later when Alastor finally knocked on Charlie’s bedroom door. The man had since carried Mimzy to her room after addressing her injuries and concluding that rest was the best course of action to take.

The man had spent most the evening doting on her and ensuring her comfort after she regained consciousness. He eventually stepped out when he managed to lull the traumatized woman into a peaceful slumber. 

On his way back to his own bedroom he stopped in front of Charlie’s door, rubbing the back of his neck in exhaustion as he replayed the girl’s spiteful words in his head. Even with his body and mind zapped of all energy he couldn’t just ignore the pit in his stomach as he recalled Charlie’s hateful expression looking up at him. 

He sighed as he knocked lightly, turning the door handle and peering inside the dimly lit room. His tired eyes immediately landed on the girl lying defeatedly in the middle of her bed, looking dejected and hopeless as she stared up at the ceiling.

“May I come in?” Alastor asked, his voice soft and sickening sweet as he attempted to ultimately coax himself back into the girl’s favor. Charlie merely shrugged, continuing to stare off aimlessly.

“Could I stop you if I tried?” She spoke calmly, sounding more resigned to her situation than anything else.

“Believe it or not, that last thing I want to do is disrespect your wishes.” Alastor explained, stepping into the room as he gently closed the door behind him. He didn’t put it past Mimzy to come barrelling into the room for round two should she realized they were convening without her.

Charlie merely scoffed at his remark. Her eyebrows furrowed as she folded her hands overtop her stomach, physically closing herself off as well as mentally.

“I take it you’re still angry with me?” Alastor sighed as he stepped around the girl’s night stand, a small oil lamp lightly flickering atop of which as he breezed passed.

Charlie said nothing in response, going so far as to shut her eyes to avoid looking at the man as she felt her bed dip beside her. Alastor bit the inside of his mouth as he sat beside the girl on the bed, eyes flickering up and down her as he seemed to assess just how angry she was.

Quite a lot it seemed.

“Come now— I couldn’t very well let you strangle her to death now could I?” Alastor sighed, stretching an arm out across Charlie’s waist to brace himself as he leaned over her petite silhouette. Charlie’s eyebrows narrowed as a deep bitter expression flashed onto her face upon hearing his words.

“No, not her— Just men who get under your skin enough, huh?” Charlie scoffed, eyes blinking as they fluttered open, staring pointedly at the man towering over her. She proudly radiated an unyielding and uncompromising energy.

“At least men have a chance to defend themselves.” Alastor retorted, his free hand rising up to toy with the ends of Charlie's short locks.

“You think Mimzy didn’t?” 

“If you had the same look in your eyes that you do now I’m not so sure she did.” Alastor admitted, his eyes redirecting from her beautiful hair back to her burning gaze. “Honestly, what would you have done if I hadn’t come home when I did?”

Charlie didn’t have an answer to that question, at least not one she was willing to admit. Instead she felt a sadistic, flirtatious grin briefly spread across her rosy cheeks before dying into a cold scowl, as if luring the man in only to pull back at the last minute.

“Guess you’ll never know.” Charlie breathed, her voice barely above a whisper though to Alastor it rang loud and clear. His fingers clenched tightly around the bedsheets as he squinted down at the girl.

She was no doubt jerking his chain. Charlie knew what he wanted from her, to see her as ruthless and cold blooded as he was. She was merely pointing out his own hypocrisy. The fact that he wanted her to take life just not certain lives. It was clear she didn’t appreciate playing by rules that seemed to exclusively benefit him.

She was rubbing it in his face— her refusal to play his game as it stood.

“Hmm.” Alastor hummed thoughtfully with a widest grin. “For now.”

With that the man leaned back, pulling himself upright as he made his way towards the bedroom door. He stopped just shy of the exit, looking back over his shoulder with a kind of fondness that seemed exclusively reserved for her.

“Good night, my love.”

Alastor was gone with the wind before Charlie could even summon the courage to look in that direction. She sighed, conveying all her frustration and exhaustion in one fleeting breath. The irritable girl groaned, grabbing her pillow and shoving it against her face with a powerful force as if trying to suffocate herself.

She couldn’t believe she had slept with that asshole.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayo! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!! As you can probably tell there's trouble in lover's paradise for our two main characters, so I hope you're all ready for the fallout still yet to come. I'm working hard to keep the chapters coming but it's thanks to all your encouraging comments that I'm back on track with this story. Special shout out to **Peacetoworld** here on AO3 for sharing her brilliant ideas and just humoring me with her sweet comments these last few chapters. It's been an absolute delight and I hope this chapter finds you in good spirits! <3
> 
> As always please share any kind of comments you have down below! And I'll see you all again in the next chapter. Bye!


	8. Calling for Reinforcements

  


Charlie had found the most effective form of torture for Alastor, possibly the only thing that could get under the man’s cold-blooded skin— the good old fashioned silent treatment. Well, more or less a silent treatment, give or take a few robotic interactions out of strictly civil obligations, which surprisingly only seemed to irk the man more. As if her occasional inexpressive responses were crumbs of a far more grander meal, and Alastor was a man on the verge of starvation.

“Ah—” Alastor sighed dramatically as he pulled on his winter coat, adjusting the heavy wool garment against his body as he spoke with an unimpressed tone of voice. “Still not talking to me, are you?” 

Charlie only rolled her eyes as she walked straight passed the man, opening the hall closet as she fetched the broom and dustpan for her afternoon chores. Her silence only seemed to invite more patronizing from the clearly agitated man. Alastor’s eyes narrowed sharply as he turned around in a swift curl, facing the speechless woman with his arms folded behind his back.

“I’m more impressed than anything really.” He continued, stepping closer like a leopard approaching its prey. “I didn’t know you had in it you to keep your mouth shut for more than five minutes.”

He was baiting her, eager for her attention. After a week of exclusively business-like transactions he was willing to do anything to break her silence. Hell, even if she only broke her silence to damn him the man would still consider it a victory nonetheless.

Charlie refused to fall into his trap. 

Silently she went about her housework, sweeping the wooden floorboards as she maneuvered around the man who had placed himself in the middle of her path, forcing himself into her line of sight whether she wanted him there or not.

“Mimzy and I are stopping by the market today. You’re free to tag along.” Alastor added, his hands finding their way into his pockets as he shrugged theatrically. “—Perhaps you can make another daring escape attempt when my back is turned.”

They both knew his words were just yet another low blow to try and pry the words out of her mouth. Alastor had made it very clear that any more escape attempts from her would only meet vague and undesirable ends, and Charlie wasn’t interested in finding out what all that entailed. Still, the fact that he’d even make such a bizarre suggestion told Charlie all she needed to know.

He was desperate.

The girl took a calm breath, straightening her back as she met Alastor’s gaze with an uninterested expression and stiff body language.

“No, thank you. I hope you two enjoy yourselves.” Charlie spoke in a dispassionate voice, her savage words sounding like nails on a chalkboard as they immediately thwarted the smile stretching across Alastor’s face. 

The man’s demeanor instantly turned cold and testy. His arms folding together in front of his chest as his fingers tapped impatiently against his sleeve. A sour expression slipping onto his face as he watched the girl with unsavory eyes.

Charlie merely turned away, short hair bouncing as she moved to carrying on her cleaning elsewhere, when suddenly she felt a firm grip constricting around her arm. The girl felt herself being yanked back around, the force of which was nothing harsh but certainly strong enough to convey a stern disposition.

“Charlie.” Alastor huffed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he spoke with a fatigued lull. “I’m beginning to lose my patience with this little tantrum of yours.”

Charlie’s face as a blank canvas, emotionless and passive as she merely blinked up at the man. Flustered lips pursed together in an impartial pout as her eyes danced between his own, looking for some self-awareness in them— she found none.

“Whoa is you.” She simply replied, making no move to detach his grip from her, allowing her numb mannerisms and dead eyes to convey all her unbridled resentment. 

Alastor’s grip tightened around her. A pained and dissatisfied smile creeping onto his face as his eyebrows pulled together uncomfortably. One look and Charlie knew he was about to crack, she could only hope he’d do so in a way that benefited her.

“Charlie—” The discontent man breathed through clenched teeth, only to be cut off by the sound of thunderous footsteps descending down the stairs.

Mimzy came bounding into the conversation. Dressed in her fluffy winter coat and suede boots as she approached. The short woman shot Charlie a demonic look from over the man’s shoulder as she surged forward.

“Al, let’s go!” Mimzy drawled, latching onto the man’s sleeve as she yanked him towards the front door. “Come on! Hurry!”

The man sighed in exhaustion as he released his grip on Charlie. The younger girl stepped back as she watched him turn to dote on the little psychopath, her eyes narrowed at the distasteful sight.

“Yes, dear.” Alastor relented with a heavy breath, untangling Mimzy’s arms from around him as he spun her around and nudged her towards the front door. “I’ll be right there. Go wait in the car, sweetheart. I just have to grab my wallet first.”

Mimzy pouted, eyes darting back to Charlie with a venomous hatred before she eventually seemed to give in and comply with Alastor’s request. The woman huffed, but otherwise turned and stomped out the front door with little reluctance.

Alastor turned back around only to find Charlie had moved down the hall. Quietly sweeping the floors with her back turned, hiding a bitter expression as she went about her mindless work. The man shook his head in begrudging dismissal as he made his way toward the door, digging into his pocket and fishing out both his wallet and keys.

“We’ll talk about this later.” He finally relented. Opening the old wooden door, briefly unleashing the harsh winter breeze into the creaky house before promptly closing and locking it behind him.

Charlie immediately proceeded to aggressively toss her broomstick to the ground. Throwing herself back against the wall as she shrank down to the floor, forming a seething ball as angry tears threatened to overflow from her eyes. She groaned like a dying animal as she kicked her feet with a childish immaturity.

If there was one person she wanted to kill at that moment it would be him.

  


* * *

  


“—We’ll swing by the market after I finish squaring some things away with the station manager.” Alastor explained as he pulled into a parking space of the small town shopping district. He leaned over, swiping his leather satchel from the floorboard beside Mimzy’s feet. Chuckling as he noted the woman’s less than satisfied expression in the process.

“You can wait in the car if you don’t want to come in, my dear.” He reminded the woman as he quickly skimmed through the contents of his bag, ensuring he had the necessary paperwork in tow.

Mimzy merely pouted childishly as she looked up at the man.

“But Al, it’s too cold.” She groaned, hugging herself tightly as she trembled, purposely exaggerating her symptoms no doubt. Alastor didn’t acknowledge the woman’s dramatic performance, having spent enough time with the woman to know when she was pulling his leg. He merely chuckled as he clasped his satchel closed once more.

“As I said, you’re welcome to come with me, dear.” He chimed back, resting his arm across the bench seat, his fingers probing playfully at the woman’s angry cheeks. “I’ll be done before you know it.”

“You always say that and I’m always left sitting in that crumby little lobby for ages.” Mimzy huffed, rolling her eyes as she sulked. Her painted nails clicking loudly as they tapped against the door handle in brewing bitterness.

Alastor sighed, shaking his head. He was slowly coming to the realization that he couldn’t seem to make any of his girls happy. Well, aside from Rosie, who was quickly becoming his favorite if only for that fact alone.

“Couldn’t I just wait for you in there?” Mimzy pleaded, pulling the man out of his wandering mind as she pointed to the small pub across the street, labelled crudely with a large, flickering, light-up sign.

_Jackpot Pub._

Alastor and Mimzy had actually frequented the place a number of times before, mostly on special occasions such as Mimzy’s birthday. It was a place that seemed to cater to a kind of clientele that only got shadier in the later hours of the night, with workers who knew how and when to keep their mouths shut, a fact that Alastor appreciated.

Regardless, he shook his head dismissively at the suggestion as he pulled his keys out of the ignition.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He laughed, stuffing his keys into his pocket as he looked down at his watch, realizing he arrived at his radio station a couple minutes early for the scheduled meeting.

“Why not?” Mimzy pressed the man, looking up at him with her big blue pleading eyes. “It’s not like I’m going to run away, you know. I’m not like her.”

They both knew who she was referring to, and Alastor seemed visibly sour at the mere mention of Charlie though he worked hard to conceal it.

Unlike with Charlie, Alastor usually had no problem allowing Mimzy a little extra freedom when it came to leaving the house, or Rosie for that matter if she ever wanted to. Their missing persons cases had taken place ways away from the tiny speck of a town they currently found themselves in, no one here even had a chance at identifying them. Not to mention, it had been years since Mimzy went missing and any search efforts for her had long been disbanded since she had no family to advocate otherwise.

“That’s not why—” The man breathed tiredly, as he pushed open his driver's side door. The cold instantly flooded in, causing the man to pull his knit scarf further up his face as he continued to fabricate an excuse. “I just don’t think sending a young woman off to sit alone in a bar is a very smart idea.”

“It’s a pub not a bar, Al. Besides, it’s not even dark yet and there’s hardly anyone in there anyway.” Mimzy rambled, reaching out to tug at the stubborn man’s sleeve as she mustered up her best set of puppy eyes. “Come on, please! Husk is probably working too. You know he’ll keep tabs on me and report everything back to you later.”

Alastor had long since learned how to say no to Mimzy’s tactical puppy eye strategy, so he was more than capable of denying her request. Still as he looked back over his shoulder at the woman he couldn’t help but notice the faint bruising around her neck. Guilt rushed over him as he realized he had indirectly been the one responsible for those marks, having practically egged Charlie on in the first place.

“Please? I’ll be fine.” The battered woman continued, batting her lashes as she squeezed the man’s arm desperately. Alastor groaned loudly and dramatically as he moved out of the car, dragging his feet as he closed his door behind him and maneuvered to Mimzy’s side of the vehicle. He pried open her passenger side door as he offered her a hand out of the vehicle.

“Fine.” He agreed reluctantly as Mimzy surged forth out of the vehicle, planting a delighted smooch against his cheek as she bounced triumphantly in his arms. Alastor allowed the affectionate display, stopping only to wave a stern finger in the woman's face as he spoke again.

"—But no theatrics or making a spectacle of yourself. You have quite a knack for attracting unsavory characters, my dear.” The man lectured as he pulled the woman away from the car, closing the door behind her as he spoke.

“You mean like you?” Mimzy giggled, though her voice was just barely above a whisper, clearly intending on keeping this conversation just between them two.

“Cheeky.” Alastor smiled, a small chuckle dancing on his lips as he playfully nudged her off in the direction of the pub with a cheerful tone. “On your way then!”

Mimzy beamed as she headed across the empty street, waving farewell as she walked backwards with a bright smile on her face.

“Don’t keep me waiting too long now, old boy!” She chimed brightly, before turning around and hurrying across the road. 

Alastor waited, watching until she disappeared within the pub’s toasty confines, ensuring she had made it there unscathed and unbothered before turning on his heel and stepping into the small radio station building. 

Even as he politely greeted the receptionist at the front desk and consulted the station manager he couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that somehow he’d regret leaving Mimzy to her own devices.

  


* * *

  


“I need to talk to you.” Mimzy snapped, as she leaned over the dimly lit bar table, lashes batting dangerously as she looked over at the familiar bartender with a sugar coated predatory gaze. 

Her target was a familiar man with swept back hair, tousled salt and pepper locks, trailing down into thick sideburns that framed his sharp features. He raised a thick eyebrow, as he turned to catch a glimpse of whoever was making such a loud fuss this early in his shift.

Husk visibly grimaced upon noticing the bat straight out of hell sitting at his counter. He groaned, realizing he had no other customers to pretend to be occupied with, well none that weren’t passed out in a drunken stupor before it was even five o’clock.

“Ah Mimzy— Aren’t you missing something? Like a sketchy ass psychopath to hold your doors for you? How is Al by the way?” Husk reluctantly entertained the woman with conversation. Focusing on polishing the wine glass in his hands, making no move towards the woman sitting in the corner of his gaze.

“He’s been distracted.” The fierce woman replied, her perfect teeth clenched in a tight painful grin. “With a shiny new toy.”

“Ah. Well, you know— It happens to the best of us.” Husk shrugged as he mentally damned himself for bringing the man up in the first place. Even he knew Alastor’s name was practically a trigger word for the frightening woman.

“I want her gone.” Mimzy suddenly chimed, resting her cheek against her palm as she toyed with the nearby napkin holder absentmindedly. Husk just shook his head as he waved the woman off.

“Don’t look at me. I just sell cheap booze, lady.” He barked, eyebrows furrowing as he kept his eyes glued on the perfectly polished glass in his hands.

“You and I both know that’s a load of shit.” Mimzy spat, leaning back in the bar stool as she looked back at the man from the bottom of her gaze. “I’ve seen you take too many wads of cash from less than well intentioned people to expect any better.”

Husk slammed the glass down on the countertop as he spun around to face the unyielding woman. He fixed her with a stern expression as he finally approached her side of the counter.

“Look. I know a bad apple when I see one and Al is a rotting orchard.” Husk huffed, cleaning his hands off on a hand rag as he spoke. “You’re barking up the wrong tree if you think I’m going to cross him.”

“Fine.” Mimzy growled, throwing her hands up in the air in dejection as she proceeded to lean in. “But you have to know someone else who will.” 

“I know lots of people, lady— but only an idiot would take your job.” Husk scoffed humorlessly as he decided to pour himself a shot. Swinging the clear poison back before he could summon the courage to continue. “Lucky you, I know just the piece of shit.”

“Husk, you dog! I knew you were holding out of me.” Mimzy squealed as she jumped in her seat, leaning against the counter as she shook the man’s collar in animated joy. Husk growled, swatting away her clingy hands as he stepped back.

“Don’t thank me yet.” The man said in a dry tone as he watched the woman with an icy gaze. “He’s new. He can’t keep his mouth shut for the life of him and he’s sloppy. But he’s the best you’re gonna get.”

“I don’t care. I’ll take him.” Mimzy accepted the terms and conditions wholeheartedly, an unwavering determination burning in her unyielding gaze. 

Husk rolled his eyes as he straightened his ruffled collar. The man leaned over, plucking a napkin from the dispenser as he simultaneously pulled a ballpoint pen out of his chest pocket.

“Here’s his number.” He explained as he jotted down a phone number onto the flimsy tissue paper. The bartender moved as if to hand the napkin over just before pulling it back as Mimzy reached out for it. The women shot him a foul look as he spoke again. “If Al asks, you didn’t get this from me.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, kitty.” Mimzy agreed, waving off the man’s concerns and she surged forward and snatched the napkin from his hands.

“Don’t call me that.” The man sighed tiredly as he moved to turn away only to be snatched back around by Mimzy’s sharp nails against his arm. Looking back he only met an unsettling expression and the woman’s face twisted with a wide grin. 

“What?” He blinked.

Mimzy giggled as she tilted her head cutely, using her feminine charm to her advantage as she always had as she leaned forward.

“I’m going to need to borrow your phone.”

  


* * *

  


_“Hello?”_

“I heard you can take care of someone for me.” Mimzy spoke into the cheap burner phone with an air of overconfidence. The woman braced herself against the narrow hallway wall leading to the pub’s bathrooms in an attempt to find a more private place to talk, unfortunately this was the best Husk had to offer her.

 _“Did you now?”_ The cocky voice on the other end of the call scoffed, clearly not thrilled to find an unexpected stranger with his number. _“You want to tell me how you got this number first?”_

“No. Listen—” Mimzy barked, not giving the man time to cut her off as she swiftly cut to the chase. “I want to make someone disappear. I heard you can do that. Can you or not?”

The man on the other end of the call was quiet, seeming to maul over the possible validity of her proposal for a moment before he eventually spoke up.

 _“...With enough compensation.”_ He finally admitted, his voice sounding faintly labored as Mimzy heard him breathe a long exhale seemingly enjoying a smoke of sorts as they talked.

“How’s a hundred dollars and a kiss sound?” Mimzy inquired with a sickeningly sweet voice as she peered down at the money Alastor had given her to hold onto for groceries. She reasoned that he’d probably buy it if she were to tell him it had accidentally slipped out of her pocket.

 _“It sounds like a shit deal.”_ The voice outright laughed, taking another drag of his joint as he proceeded to berate the woman. _“You want someone dead not a back alley blow job.”_

Mimzy growled behind clenched teeth. This guy sounded more like an immature teenager than a hitman for hire. What kind of idiot did Husk set her up with?

“So, what do you want?” Mimzy huffed into the plastic flip phone, her finger constricting painfully around the casing. The man on the other end hummed as he thought the question over carefully.

 _“Hmm, whose the target?”_ He asked, groaning as he seemed to lean back and get comfortable into their conversation.

“A nobody skank.” 

_“Oh?”_ The boy laughed animatedly. _“Is she pretty at least?”_

“Why would that matter?” Mimzy hissed, looking down at the shitty phone in distaste as if it were the idiot man himself. 

What the hell was wrong with this guy?

 _“Well, the pretty ones pay for themselves once I put their crying faces in front of a camera.”_ The man explained in a nonchalant voice as he proceeded to ramble frivolously. _“Ever heard of Voxtube?”_

“No.” Mimzy blinked disinterestedly as she leaned around the doorway, shooting Husk daggers to which the man merely shrugged uncommitted her from the bar counter.

_“It’s basically the Youtube of the dark web.”_

“—Still no.”

The guy seemed to finally catch on to the fact that Mimzy didn’t give a single shit about what he was saying as soon he finally sighed in defeat. He huffed as his boisterous voice turned flat and blunt.

_“Sick fucks there pay good money to watch pretty girls get fucked up.”_

“Sick fucks.” Mimzy scoffed as she raised an unimpressed eyebrow, analyzing the quality of her manicure. “You mean like you?”

 _“Ha! Hey, it’s nothing personal. If my old man didn’t cut me off I wouldn’t have to diversify my income stream in the first place.”_ The murderer for hire explained, his voice sounding too youthful and inexperienced for comfort.

“For a hit man you certainly talk too much.” Mimzy groaned, folding her free arm over her chest as she seethed into the phone. “Besides I’m afraid you're out of luck. Charlie’s ugly as sin anyway.”

 _“Charlie?”_ The man audibly recoiled, his disinterest very apparent. _“I thought this was a girl?”_

“It is!” The woman hissed into the receiver as she turned and beat her head against the wall. “Her real name is Charlotte M... Something or another.”

 _“Charlotte Magne?”_ The voice suddenly supplied. Seemingly out of nowhere the man’s interest in their conversation had skyrocketed. Immediately Mimzy’s voice turned skeptical.

“How do you know her?”

 _“So it is!”_ The voice gasped excitedly as he leaned into the conversation. _“Huh, no kidding— Let’s just say the police aren’t the only ones looking for her. In the circles I’m in that name’s going for quite the high price...”_

Mimzy wasn’t given time to press the man with more questions, not that she was overly interested in the details. All she wanted was Charlie’s head on a spike, and if she had to smooth talk a narcissistic kid with daddy issues to get that then so be it. 

_“Well, if she is who you say she is then I’m in.”_ The man finally agreed.

“Really?” Mimzy asked excitedly as she struggled to keep her voice down. The man chuckled sinisterly as he hummed in wordless agreement.

_“Tell me when and where and consider it done.”_

Mimzy didn’t think twice before divulging all the necessary information. Telling herself she could act now and think later as she spilled a disturbing amount of information to the stranger. The man seemed to half heartedly jot down the details before the conversation came to a swift close.

Mimzy was happy to be free of the little twerp’s voice grating against her eardrum as she turned the corner and made her way back into the pub only to find a familiar face arguing with Husk upon her return.

“I told you she’s just in the bathroom.” Husk said exasperatedly as he stepped back from Alastor’s side of the counter. “She’s probably just powdering her nose or some shit, man.”

“You can’t keep your eyes on her for ten minutes?” Alastor snapped, a sour grimace plastered across his face as he talked to the bartender in question.

“She went to the bathroom, Al! You’d rip my eyes out if I did.” Husk retorted, waving his arms for animated emphasis. Alastor opened his mouth, ready to interrogate the man further. Something seemed off, Husk seemed too dismissive and unbalanced. Alastor was determined to get the bottom of it, one way or another, that was until a loud vibrant voice suddenly joined the conversation.

“Al!” Mimzy squealed joyously as she skipped into the room and threw herself into Alastor’s arms. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Let’s go! I want to get to the market before it gets too late.”

Mimzy purposely provided Alastor no time to further investigate Husk. She knew damn well that with enough prodding Husk would spill everything to Alastor to save his own skin, so Mimzy was quick as she pulled Alastor toward the door, sneakily tossing Husk back his phone as she ushered Alastor away.

Mimzy honestly hated herself for being so manipulative and working behind Alastor’s back. She promised herself that after this was all said and done, when Charlie was buried in some unmarked ditch, that she’d eventually come clean and never lie to him again. 

After all, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

  


* * *

  


“Well, doesn’t this kitchen just smell heavenly!” Alastor remarked cheerfully as he stepped into the room, folding his button up sleeves up to his elbows as he spoke. “Definitely an improvement from your previous cooking attempts, Charlie, my dear.”

Even after a week of being more or less ignored on a daily basis Alastor continued to push as many of Charlie’s buttons as he could, anything to weaken her silent resolve. Charlie felt her eye twitch as she continued to ignore the man as he spoke from the kitchen’s open doorway. 

It seemed her reluctance to acknowledge him only drove him further in as he closed the distance between them, leaning over her as she stirred a ladle around the simmering soup pot. His fingers lightly grazed the knobs of the stovetop on either side of Charlie’s waist as he seemed to almost cage her in with his arms. He leaned down, taking a whiff of the bubbling stew, smiling at the delicious aroma.

“One might think you’re learning a thing or two from me, sweetheart.” The man teased, his hot breath ghosting across the younger girl’s ear only causing Charlie’s brain to short circuit. The girl pursed her lips and straightened her back, doing her best to look unphased by the man’s petty attempts to ruffle her feathers.

“Perhaps you should stand back. It’d be a shame if you got any on such nice clothes, wouldn’t it?” Charlie jabbed, intending for her words to sound more threatening and monotone than it seemed Alastor was willing to interpret them.

“You really think they’re nice?” The man beamed with a raised eyebrow. Stepping back as he pulled at his suspenders tauntingly, chuckling as the girl’s face turned red from either embarrassment or anger.

“Shut up.” Charlie growled, biting her lip as her focus once again returned to her roaring soup pot. 

“Hmm. Mimzy and I are going out for drinks tonight.” Alastor explained now that he knew he had the woman’s attention. The permanent pout on Charlie’s face being the only response he got in return. “If you weren’t so stubborn maybe we could have a date night of our own, have you considered that?”

“If _I_ wasn’t so stubborn?” Charlie scoffed, staring daggers into her simmering soup as she continued stirring even more aggressively. “I’m sorry I don’t fawn over you like she does.”

“At least she listens, something you could stand to learn from her.” Alastor retorted, stepping back as he crossed his arms over his chest, his sharp pointed gaze staring down at Charlie as if she was some disobedient child. Charlie must have had steam pouring from her ears as she threw aside her ladle, pivoting around on her heel as she turned to face the man.

“You know— You act like you’re so much better than other men when in reality you’re no different at all!” Charlie sneered, laughing humorlessly as she mirrored Alastor’s folded arm posture. Stepping closer as she straightened her back, standing tall as she opposed him.

“Is that so?” Alastor inquired, a condescending smirk playing at his lips.

“It is!” Charlie squawked, throwing her arms up as she called out the man’s hypocrisy. “You can’t bear to think maybe I’m right. That maybe just maybe you’re actually the one who's wrong!”

“All this because I wouldn’t let you kill Mimzy?” Alastor shook his head as he rolled his eyes dismissively. He was acting as if Charlie was speaking in tongues rather than in English, like she was just hopelessly rambling on about some childish nonsense. 

Charlie saw red.

“—Because you want us to get along like we’re goddamn sister wives!” The girl shrieked, pushing the man back a step after mustering forth all her strength and building rage. Alastor merely blinked, reaching up to grab hold of the girl’s slim wrists, holding them in place against his chest as he spoke.

“So you’re... jealous?” He asked softly, tilting his head like the clueless idiot he apparently was. The girl’s face went red at the man’s question. 

Honestly, the idea that she was jealous of that venomous snake never crossed her mind until that moment, and it wasn’t a realization she was willing to accept. Charlie was still too riled up with anger to be talked down anyway, even with Alastor’s smooth and syrupy tone attempting to reach her.

“Of course not!” Charlie snapped, violently shaking her hands free from the man’s warm, delicate touch. She moved to rub at her hands, a self-soothing action to ease her own insecurity. “I’m only saying that if I was at all interested in this... lifestyle— then it wouldn’t be with her.”

“I understand your concerns,” Alastor gently sighed, leaning over as he attempted to make peace with the girl and meet her gaze. Showing Charlie a more compassionate side of himself before rapidly snatching it away. “However, Mimzy’s not going anywhere and neither are you.”

Charlie’s eyes narrowed into spiteful slits as she briefly looked up at the man before shaking her head dismissively. The younger girl took a deep breath, turning around and picking her ladle back up as she focused on finishing her dinner. 

“Is that a fact?” She chimed robotically, resuming her attempt at a failed silent treatment, punishing the man with her spiritless demeanor. Alastor followed her, leaning over to place a tender kiss against her cheek. 

“It’s a promise.” He answered. Charlie visibly recoiled, stepping away from him with her distaste written plain as day across her face.

“For now.” She chirped back flatly, not meeting his gaze as she reached for the salt shaker and gave her tasty concoction a healthy dose. It seemed her vague threat didn’t land well with Alastor as he abruptly reached out, catching her hand as it gripped onto the salt canister over the sizzling pot. Charlie finally turned, meeting his burning gaze.

“Like it or not you’re here to stay. Whether or not you accept this so-called lifestyle I really don’t care. After all, we have nothing if not time for you to change your mind.” Alastor narrowed his eyes dangerously as he smiled down at the younger girl, taking the salt shaker from her hand before calmly setting it aside before leaning in. “—And I’m happy to wait.”

Charlie said nothing, struggling to find the nerve to stand up to the man when she knew there was something so foul and deadly lurking just beneath the surface. Alastor seemed to interpret her silence as compliance, however temporary. The taller man pulled her hand up, placing a delicate kiss against the back of her palm before leaving her to her own devices.

“Now, don’t you two ladies stay up too late! I expect lights out before we get back.” He rattled off, his voice suddenly shifting into a more upbeat and cheerful tone as he made for the room’s exit. He almost sounded like a doting husband should you ignore his earlier threats.

Charlie’s fiery gaze practically burned her soup as she stared down at it’s spiraling motion, ears nearly bleeding as she was forced to listen to Mimzy and Alastor’s joyous flirtation in the next room over. Her boiling anger only subsided when she heard the front door open and close as they finally made their exit. 

Her nails tapped against the wooden countertop thoughtfully as she listened to the sound of Alastor’s truck pulling out of the driveway. Finally, she dropped what she was doing. Stomping towards Alastor’s liquor cabinet with reckless abandon.

Tonight she was ready to make some bad decisions.

  


* * *

  


Charlie was several shots of whiskey in when she’d felt the bad ideas surging forth.

She decided to start her chaotic bender with a self indulgent binge. Soon she found herself angrily stuffing her face as she scrolled through the glitchy radio stations. She had long since finished her dinner, having now progressed onto dessert as she popped yet another spoonful of peanut butter into her mouth. 

She inhaled the sticky delight, throwing caution to the wind as she combed the kitchen cabinets of all their sugary treasures. If her mother were here no doubt she’d be nagging her about watching her girlish figure, so perhaps there were some positives to being here after all.

Charlie groaned, throwing herself onto the living room couch, staring off into the crackling fire briefly before looking to the side at the room’s grandfather clock. She was doing her best to stay awake till Alastor and Mimzy returned home, though her eyes were starting to droop from exhaustion.

She’d do anything to spite the bastard, unfortunately the options available to her were disgustingly limited, staying up late, getting shit-faced drunk and eating the man’s sweet deposit out of house and home were really the best she had up her sleeve to make Alastor pay.

The young girl threw her head back against the sofa, eyes staring up at the ceiling aimlessly. Only the sound of the static radio, billowing fireplace and Rosie’s soft embroidery in the armchair beside Charlie could be heard in the old house. 

That was until there came a sudden knock at the front door.

Charlie immediately stopped her mindlessly binging, pulling the spoon from her mouth, wide eyes looking toward Rosie for some indication as to what they should do. The older woman halted her knitting immediately, meeting Charlie’s gaze before shaking her head in the negative, clearly wanting to pretend she hadn’t heard anything in the first place.

“Ignore it.” Rosie mouthed to the younger girl, hazel eyes returning to her task as she took care to be extra quiet.

Charlie really tried to ignore the knock— but then it came again, and again, and again.

“Jesus Christ!” Charlie shrieked with a drunken fury, springing up from her spot on the sofa, throwing the pillow previously in her lap back onto the couch as she stepped around the vintage coffee table.

“Charlie!” Rosie snapped, dropping her knitting project as she trailed behind the young girl with the intention of stopping her from doing anything stupid. 

Charlie briefly wondered if that was why she had been hanging out with her the whole night away— to keep tabs on her. As if she was some kind of babysitter to keep watch over her till daddy got home. Charlie shuddered, realizing that if Alastor was the daddy in that analogy then she probably didn’t want to know what that made Mimzy.

“I’m just going to tell them to fuck off, Rosie!” Charlie huffed as she maneuvered through the kitchen, swiping a knife from the magnetic holder on the wall as she carried on into the narrow hallway leading to the front door.

“Charlie, don't! Alastor will be pissed if you even think of opening that door!” Rosie warned, tugging on Charlie’s arm as the younger girl approached the door, another knock booming against it. Charlie merely scoffed, shrugging the woman off.

“Good.” She growled through clenched teeth, raising the knife to pick away at the rusted bolt lock, breaking through it swiftly and proceeding to throw the door open before the stranger on their doorstep could beat against the thin wood anymore.

There on their front porch stood a tall, dark and handsome man, with thick sharp eyebrows framing his tanned face and piercing green eyes. He radiated a sense of entitlement and high class living that didn’t seem to fit the area he found himself in.

“Good evening, ladies. I’m sorry to bother you—” The man spoke, his voice sounding strained as he spoke in a sickeningly polite and well mannered voice. Charlie’s eyes narrowed as she eyed him up and down suspiciously. The alcohol in her veins gave her new confidence as she piped up, interrupting him.

“Who are you? What do you want?” She interrogated the lost looking man, her face brightly flushed from her drunken state as her hand held firmly onto the door, ready to slam it in his face in any instant.

The man looked perplexed by Charlie’s immediately offensive position and attitude. He merely scoffed after a moment, squinting down at the girl as he attempted to read her like a book. Finally, his hands unfolded from behind his back, settling into a much more natural position within the confines of his coat pockets as he leaned back.

“The name’s Seviathan. I was hoping you could help me.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo, another chapter down! Lol, How excited are you guys for Seviathan? On a scale from 0 to 0?? 🙈😂  
> Anyway as always, please let me know if you have any comments or ideas you'd like to share down below! Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you in the next one! 
> 
> Also, I just wanted to give another shoutout to **Dkmbookworm** who actually drew even more fanart for this story over on Twitter! (If anyone's interested in seeing I've included links below!) Just like last time I can't even articulate how amazing it is to see someone drawing fanart of a story I've written! It's just- GAH! It's just amazing!! I just hope you know how much I appreciate you taking the time to do that and I hope you continue to enjoy this story!!! 💕💕💕
> 
> 1\. https://twitter.com/dkmbookworm/status/1333285002558148609?s=20  
> 2\. https://twitter.com/dkmbookworm/status/1336438954808070144?s=20


	9. When Trouble Comes Knocking

  


“Our help?” Charlie blinked slowly, tilting her head in curiosity as the alcohol in her system only helped to exaggerate her quirky movements. “Help with what?”

“Well, you see my car got a flat tire just down the road from here.” Seviathan explained, jabbing his thumb back over his shoulder as he pointed in the direction of his compromised vehicle. “I was hoping I could find someone who’d know how to change it.”

Charlie was prepared to interrogate him further. After all, why wouldn’t he just call a tow truck or something? She may not have access to a phone but she was fucking kidnapped. What was this guy’s excuse? Before Charlie could call upon the liquid courage in her gut and press the stranger with more questions Rosie had nudged her way into the conversation.

“What kind of man doesn’t know how to change a tire?” Rosie asked demeaningly, staring daggers into the man’s tall silhouette as she looked him up and down. Her folded arms and discontent posture effectively conveyed her clear contempt, spiting the young man for even having the nerve to ask them for help. Charlie pouted at the woman’s unnecessary harshness.

Sure, the guy might be a little shameless coming to them for help but he was probably just desperate, Charlie reasoned, Rosie’s cruelty giving rise to her own boundless compassion. It was practically the icy tundra outside their doorstep, there was hardly anyone else for miles, and who knew how long it’d take for a car repair service to track all the way out here in the first place? Charlie supposed in the end she couldn’t blame the guy for trying his luck.

The man shrugged dismissively at Rosie’s venomous tongue lashing, flashing his perfect teeth with a casual chuckle.

“A rich one.” The man answered flippantly, proceeding to act like Rosie wasn’t even there as his enamoring gaze fixing itself onto his target of choice— Charlie. The blonde girl felt herself snort at the guy’s comment, rolling her dragging eyes as she fixed the man with an unimpressed teasing gaze.

“Speak for yourself.” She chuckled, standing as straight as she could while proudly holding her hand over her chest. “My dad has more money than god and he still taught me how to change a tire.”

Seviathan smirked at the girl’s claim, leaning in as he towered over her short stature. Charlie shrunk into herself instinctively as he invaded her bubble abruptly. She forced a polite smile as she leaned back, clinging to the door handle and her illusion of protection.

“So, you can help me!” The man exclaimed festively, looking down at the girl with hopeful eyes that shimmered like a hundred emeralds that had sunk at the bottom of a murky lake. Charlie bit her lip as her blushing face deepened without her permission.

He was definitely a beautiful man, though the kind of guy you could tell never put in a hard day’s work in his life. Not a hair was out of place, locked in with expensive and high-quality salon products. Priceless cologne wafted from his neck, subconsciously luring Charlie back in with it’s romantic scent. Up close she marveled at the man’s golden tan, serving to make him look like something ethereal. Charlie shook her head, rallying herself to her senses as waved her hands wildly in denial, using them as a makeshift barrier between herself and the man.

“What?!” Charlie laughed nervously, once again stepping back cautiously as she waved him off. “No, no, no. I didn’t say that.”

Suddenly the man looked like a kicked puppy, the sheer sight causing Charlie to feel sick to her stomach— she loved puppies.

“So you won’t?” The man sighed dejectedly, eyes focusing in the creaky floorboards of the dimly lit front porch. As his disheartened display pulled at Charlie’s heart strings the girl was none the wiser when the man started to slip his hand back behind himself, his gloved fingers ghosting across the metallic handle of his gun, hidden in his waistband.

If she wanted to make this difficult, though it was unfortunate, he had no issue with resulting to more primitive methods of persuasion.

Luckily for everyone the bubbly girl seemed to have a change of heart before he could even unveil his weapon. Charlie suddenly surged forward, planting her delicate hand reassuring over his shoulder as she offered the man a dorky thumbs up in affirmation.

“No, I’ll help!” She decided, eyes sparkling with heaps of determination and naivety as she patted the man’s shoulder comfortingly. Seviathan looked briefly dumbfounded and doubtful before he came to the conclusion that she was a genuine idiot. Still his eyebrows drew inward in confusion as he smiled politely.

She was quite the character that was for sure.

“You’ll what?” Rosie suddenly snapped, reminding both of them of her undesirable presence. Charlie turned, fixing the woman with an uncompromising look as she squared her shoulders dramatically.

“I’ll help him.” Charlie repeated, looking back to the young man as she gestured for him to wait there. “Just give me a minute, uh— Seviathan. I think I saw we had a car jack in the garage!”

Charlie shuffled passed Rosie’s intimidating aura, stumbling in her efforts to veer as far away from her as possible. The resolute girl scoffed as she caught herself on the wall. Seviathan eyes narrowed curiously at the woman’s lack of grace, he figured something might be off but he’d be lying to say he pegged her as the coordinated type to begin with.

Quickly, the girl readjusted herself, playing off the small blunder as if it didn’t even happen. She carried on around the corner and towards the garage door, swinging it open as she began searching her memory for the car jack she had previously seen.

Rosie flashed Seviathan one last deadly look before she swung the front door in his face, leaving him to shiver in the cold as she stormed off after Charlie with a ferocious demeanor.

“Charlie—!” Rosie huffed as she followed the relentless girl’s path into the garage, watching in horror as the shorter woman yoinked the necessary tools from Alastor’s tool bench.

Charlie turned sharply, her supplies in tow as she moved to pass Rosie and head toward the front door. Rosie though refused to budge from her stance blocking the doorway, using her body as a physical wall to stop the girl from embarking on her foolish quest.

“Are you crazy?” Rosie growled, her arms stretching out to close off all possible escape routes. “You’re not going anywhere! You’re fucking drunk.”

“I’m not drunk.” Charlie spat, heaving the heavy equipment up in her arms to gain a better grip on it, her movements awkward and clumsy as she moved, only serving to leverage Rosie’s point credibility. “I’m barely buzzed.”

“Charlie, you can’t just go with some guy you just met! Have some sense, would you?! This guy reeks of bad news.” Rosie lectured, arms waving towards the porch for emphasis as she tried to verbally beat some wit into the daft girl. Charlie merely planted her feet solidly on the ground as she spoke through clenched teeth.

“Unlike everyone else in this house, I can’t turn my back on someone if they need me!” Charlie proclaimed, fingers constricting tightly around her tools as she fixed the older woman with a proud gaze. “I refuse to assume the worst in people!”

The girl finally pushed passed Rosie with one swift shove, causing the older woman to balk as she watched the girl make her way back into the front hallway. Rosie pursed her lips bitterly as she chased after her, calling out as she slid into the hallway behind her.

“Charlie, if you leave this house so help me I’ll—!”

“You’ll what?!” Charlie sneered like something feral, hand on the front door’s handle as she looked back over her shoulder at Rosie. Her doll-like eyes burning with unspoken threats. “—Tell on me to Alastor?”

Rosie clenched her teeth, grinding her jaw as she clung onto her silence, realizing there was no answer she could give that would snap Charlie out of her crazed state. Charlie laughed, shrugging her shoulders as she stared at Rosie’s dumbfounded figure at the end of the hall.

“Well, have at it! He can be mad at me all he wants but facts are facts!” The girl growled, eyes narrowing as she felt the cold touch of the door handle within her hands. She bit her lip to a near painful extent as Alastor’s face flashed into her mind. “—He’s the one whose wrong, not me.”

Charlie allowed no time for anyone to talk her down, she yanked open the front door, her short curls bouncing with the gush of wind she caused from the sheer force only. She greeted Seviathan’s curious expression with a performed smile, immediately latching on the man’s arm as she pulled him off the front porch and into the night’s fierce wrath.

“Now— Where’s this car of yours, Seviathan?”

  


* * *

  


“Thanks for coming out and doing this.” Seviathan remarked, as he led the way back down the snowy dirt road towards his vehicle, using his phone as a flashlight to illuminate their path. “Not many people would lean a hand to a complete stranger like this.”

“Well, I’m not many people.” Charlie breathed, her face extra flushed between the alcohol coursing through her system and the winter’s freezing wrath. She cursed herself for not grabbing a jacket before storming out, though her dramatic exit was not ruined she was certainly feeling stupid as she shivered her way to the man’s car. “Besides— The sooner you get out of here the better it’ll be for everyone.”

Charlie hated to think what would have happen if Alastor had been the one to answer the door instead of her, best case scenario Seviathan would have had a door slammed in his face and spent a sleepless night in his car no doubt, worse case— well, let’s just say the boy was lucky she was more understanding and sympathetic.

“Amen to that.” The man laughed lightheartedly as the sound of their trudging footsteps carried through the air, mixing with distant wolf howls and owl calls as they silently hiked up the road. Charlie’s eyes darted around the tree line nervously, the darkness playing on her childish fears as she shuffled closer beside Seviathan for reassurance and warmth.

Charlie clung to the metal car jack in her mitts as she peered up at Seviathan. She took in his darken silhouette, reasoning he couldn’t be much older than her. He was just a lost kid, stuck out herewith no one else to help him. Charlie scoffed to herself, jesting in her head that at least she wasn’t the only one. Regardless, he carried himself as if he knew well that there were far worse things in this world to be afraid of than imaginary things that go bump in the night.

His confidence was comforting, rallying the girl to put on a brave face of her own. Even if she couldn’t make it out of this place, at the very least she wanted him to make it home safe.

Before long Charlie noticed Seviathan’s flashlight shining against a metallic surface in the distance— his car. The reflection was almost blinding as they got closer, soon revealing a luxurious sports car that even Charlie, who had no interest in cars, simply had to admire.

The car was a masterpiece of sharp angles and sleek curves, polished to perfection as a thick gloss coated the stylish paint job, locking in a dark swampy color that shimmered nearly neon green in the light of Seviathan’s phone.

“Here she is.” Seviathan sighed, his breath shaping into a visible cloud as it cascaded through the frosty air. “Admittedly, she’s not much to look at in her current situation.”

Charlie offered a small gentle laugh as she bobbed around the vehicle. Her eyes soon landed on the deflated tire and the reason she was out here in the first place. She took a breath, placing the car jack down at her feet beside the tire before turning to Seviathan with a raised eyebrow.

“You have a spare?” She asked, sending the man off on a brief expedition to retrieve the spare tire. As Seviathan popped his trunk as began fishing around out of Charlie’s sight she decided to assess the damage.

Charlie knelt down, her soft fingers ran along the chilled rubber, feeling for any possible punctures that could have caused the tire to pop. She expected something fairly typical, like a stray nail or sharp object that accidentally found its way into the road, what she didn’t expect was to find a huge gash stretching down the rubber, nearly the length of her entire hand.

Immediately Charlie pulled a confusion expression, fingers flinching back from the cut as if it burned her.

It was almost as if the tire was slashed on purpose.

She shook her head as if to rid the preposterous thought, perhaps he just ran over some glass in the road. Regardless, she wasn’t here to interrogate the man on such details. She just needed to get him back on his feet and on his way home, she reminded herself.

“Milady.” Seviathan spoke charmingly, the sudden close proximity of his voice causing Charlie to nearly jump out of her skin.

The man towered over her as he pushed the spare tire towards her, his looming presence suddenly started to make her stomach twist, unfortunately it seemed the several shots of whiskey in her system muddled the communication between her mind and her gut feeling. Instead of coming up with an excuse or making a break for it she just bit her cheek, accepting the tire replacement with a tight smile.

Her imagination was just getting carried away, she assured herself, clinging to her false interpretation of Seviathan’s character. Surely, he was just an innocent kid who just needed her help, right? Unfortunately for her, Seviathan was none of those things.

What he was in fact was a smooth talker and excellent at his job. He squinted down at the girl, eyes flicking up and down her slim yet curvy silhouette, immediately picking up on her discomfort that even she seemed unaware of. He smiled, stuffing his hands in his pockets as his shadow stretched over her sinisterly.

He couldn’t have that— it was too early for her to start listening to her common sense now.

“Are gonna bestow upon me your tire changing wisdom then?” He suddenly chimed, making small conversation to distract her from her pesky survival instincts. “—Teach this rich boy some new tricks?”

“Haha, hopefully!” Charlie laughed playfully, the casual chat calming her nerves as she maneuvered onto both her knees beside the tire. She began unscrewing the bolts around the tire cap as she smiled back up at the man. “It really is a good lesson to learn you know.”

“I’m all ears! Here, let me hold the light for you.” Seviathan stated encouragingly as he stepped back, using his phone’s flashlight to cast a large ray of light upon the girl and her area of operation. Charlie thanked the man as she shifted her undivided attention to the task at hand.

As the woman continued to narrate her actions like a tutorial Seviathan tapped away at his phone, swiping around the screen before pulling up his Voxtube app, hitting the live-stream button as Charlie proceeded to ramble needlessly in front of the camera.

“Mhm.” The man occasionally replied to the woman, his focus obviously elsewhere as he began to walk around the girl in the guise of providing her better light. After just a few moments, her flattering position sent a flurry of donations and demented comments shooting into the livestream’s public chatroom.

Seviathan chuckled under his breath as he expertly balanced maintaining his charismatic facade with Charlie while also reading through the most deplorable comments.

_**Str33tRando:** OH. This is gonna be a good one._

_**GasMask666:** Look at the tits on that whore!_

_**Ohio10:** Whose talking about her tits when her ass is right there?_

_**BeefButcher:** Can’t wait to see this one break._

The usual filth poured into the chat as scum from all over the world tuned into his broadcast. Seviathan silently skimmed through the rapidly scrolling text as he continued a lighthearted conversation with Charlie, the main dish on tonight’s metaphorical menu. Suddenly, a new message popped up onto his screen— just what he was waiting for. This message belonged to a private chat, highlighted and emphasized, a treatment only the highest ranked members’ comments were given.

Seviathan’s toxic waste green eyes immediately latched onto the comment, a cruel smile plastering itself onto his wicked face as he silently read it to himself.

_**Vox:** Get me a closer look._

Finally, tonight’s client had arrived, fashionably late Seviathan noted. Clearly the man was still doubtful of Seviathan’s claims to have found just the girl that neither he nor the entire state wide police force could find themselves. The feeling of beating everyone to the chase went straight to his head, a smug expression happily settling onto his face.

“Hmm...” Seviathan hummed as he considered how best to go about delivering upon his client’s request.

The young man quietly crept closer as Charlie continued to babble on none the wiser. Seviathan leaned down. Holding his phone at just the perfect angle to peer down at her impressive tits. A perverse sight that sent a new wave of objectifying comments through the public chat, the satisfying uproar was nowhere to be seen in the client’s private messages however.

_**Vox:** I meant her face, you dumbass._

Seviathan rolled his eyes disinterestedly as a smarmy grin flashed across his chiseled ace. It seemed this client was a stick in the mud, most of his other clients reveled in the sleazy side of his business. The only thing his audience ate up more than the sexual aspect of his sessions was the foul torture that preceded the victim’s inevitable death. Unfortunately, for him and the rest of tonight’s audience it seemed big bad Mr. Vox would rather skip to the final act. Seviathan huffed as he tapped away his response into the private chat.

_**Seviathan:** You’re no fun. 💩💩💩_

_**Vox:** Do it. Unless you want to find a new occupation._

Seviathan sighed, his expression turning agitated as he ran his free hand through his hair in clear frustration. He was never one to take too kindly to anyone barking orders at him, essentially not from some vengeful bastard who needed his help to even get this far into his vendetta in the first place, and here he was trying to threaten him for not moving fast enough?

Like hell if he had to listen to some useless douchebag.

“—What are you doing?”

Seviathan blinked, upon hearing the soft questioning voice. His vibrant eyes darted up to meet Charlie’s, realizing his phone’s camera was quite shamelessly tilted down in the direction of the girl’s low cut sweater.

“Nothing!” Seviathan answered with an animated laugh, pretending to be using his phone’s flashlight feature to be looking around the ground below the girl. “I thought I saw a bolt roll away was all.”

“Oh! No. They’re all accounted for.” Charlie clarified, sitting her butt onto the soles of her feet as she quickly counted through the shiny metal bolts in her palm. Seviathan thanked his lucky stars that she was a dumbass, mentally praising himself for the nice save.

“Of course.” Seviathan quickly relented, shaking his head as if trying to shake some sense into his brain. “How foolish of me to doubt the expert.”

Seviathan had made a living out of pulling the wool over people’s eyes, still he was surprised to find a woman so gullible. Charlie only seemed to scan the boy over briefly before allowing a light, whimsical giggle to slip passed her teeth. She shook her head dismissively, writing off the boy’s antics as just an honest, yet awkward, mistake.

Her laugh was practically angelic, in fact she was unlike his usual victims in nearly every way. A little naïve, sure, but she was far too honest and pure-hearted for Seviathan to imagine why anyone would want to see her dead. Still, Seviathan couldn’t shake the small charmed smile from his face.

Stupid or not she had a certain charm to her— though he’d wager it was mostly thanks to her massive rack.

His phone flashed in his hand, calling upon his attention as another message surged into the private chat.

_**Vox:** I’m not paying you to flirt with the bitch. Do. Your. Fucking. Job._

Seviathan clenched his jaw, as he felt the grin being ripped from his face. The young man had half a mind to tell the bastard to stick his money up his ass for talking to him like some dog, he thought better of it as he recalled the new wrist watch he had his eyes on.

_**Seviathan:** I take it she’s the one then?_

_**Vox:** She’s the one._

“There you go!” Charlie suddenly beamed, rising up onto her feet with a slight drunken sway. She laughed mostly to herself as she stumbled and regained her balance. She patted the top of the sports car in fond triumphant as she spun around to face the man. “It’s not much but it should get you on your way! I’d take it to a repair shop when you get back into town though.”

Seviathan eyed the girl up and down, suddenly putting the puzzle pieces together. Her heated skin, unbalanced coordination, and obliviousness to all his red flags— she was drunk. The man scoffed, as a sadistic grin once again played at his lips.

This would be easier than he thought.

“Well, it looks better than anything I could have done. I'll tell you that.” The young man praised as he quickly tapped away at his phone. He paused the live-stream, altering the capture from his camera footage to a nearly blank screen, only ominous glowing text filling the screen.

_Stay tuned._

“Hey—!” Seviathan suddenly called out, stuffing his phone into his pocket before noticing Charlie collecting the car jack and starting to turn back toward the house. “Let me give you a ride back to your place! It’s the least I can do for your help.”

“Oh no, it’s fine really—” Charlie laughed, waving her hand dismissively through the crisp night air, eager to find the nearest heat source before she freezes. “It’s not that far anyway.”

“Come on! It’s criminal to leave a lady out in this weather.” Seviathan pressed on, refusing to let this golden opportunity to slip through his fingers. He stepped towards his vehicle, opening the passenger side door as he casually gestured the girl over.

“I have a heater too, you know.” He tempted the girl, laughing both playfully and performatively, shooting the girl an almost hurt expression in the process. “You’re not gonna make me beg are you?”

Charlie bit her lip as she seemed to consider the man’s offer. After all, it was a decent track back to the house and the burning alcohol in her veins was putting up little fight against the winter’s wrath. She hugged herself tightly as she looked back at the toasty interior of the stranger’s vehicle, her common sense muffled by her instinctual need for warmth and shelter.

“Actually... I think I’ll take you up on your offer!” The girl eventually smiled sheepishly. Seviathan only smirked back reassuringly as he held the door open for the girl. Charlie shuffled over to the vehicle, bowing her head graciously as the man helped her into the passenger seat, swiftly closing the door behind her.

Charlie’s large eyes combed through every immaculate detail of the luxurious interior as Seviathan maneuvered around the car and into the driver’s seat. She marveled at every polished surface, the endless buttons and cool features. She approached each new discovery with a silent child-like wonder.

It was only upon Seviathan’s return and the start of the ignition that she snapped out of her daydreaming. She whipped her head around, her eyes half-lidded as the whiskey in her stomach did wonders to calm her nerves.

“Thank you by the way. It’s really nice of you to do this.” She said gratefully as she struggled awkwardly to pull on her seat belt, her drunken hands fumbling as they attempted to get the clasp to latch. Seviathan chuckled as he eventually turned to help the hopeless girl.

“Anything for a lovely lady such as yourself.” He chimed back, connecting her seat belt properly with a satisfying snapping sound. Charlie felt her vision become hazy as she felt the man’s warm breath ghost pleasantly across her neck. “No doubt a girl like you has all the guys wrapped around your finger.”

Charlie laughed in embarrassment, her hand reaching up to rub shyly at her neck. The girl’s gaze fell to the floorboards as her thoughts continued to spiral, consumed by the one man who she could only wish was wrapped around her finger.

“I don’t know about that.” She answered, her voice noticeably disheartened as she kicked her feet together weakly. A bitter expression taking claim to her soft features as she pouted beside the man.

“Haha, no? Could have fooled me.” Seviathan replied distractedly, as he fiddled with the car's gadgets, setting up the GPS as he halfheartedly carried on flattering the girl beside him. “Some guys really dig the self-sufficient, can-do types, you know.”

Charlie raised her head, considering the man’s favorable words with a hopeful smitten expression. She slowly leaned back into the expensive leather seat, looking up to the man as he tapped away at the GPS. Charlie blinked slowly, her body feeling heavy and limp as she basked in the heated seat and cozy quarters.

“You... You really think that’s my type?” She scoffed, her voice void of any genuine humor as a stiff fleeting smirk just barely took residence on her face before slipping away. Her deep rooted insecurity was showing despite all her desperate efforts to keep it concealed.

Seviathan looked up, still in the middle of punching in the location to one of his family’s many classified warehouses, one even his parents seemed to have forgotten existed. Regardless, he was happy to put the secluded facility to use for tonight’s stream.

“Definitely.” He answered softly, his voice smooth like butter as he leaned back slightly to catch a better glimpse of the meek girl.

Not only was she probably the most unusual victim he’s ever dealt with, but she was no doubt the most beautiful as well. His fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he debated with himself, torn between just hurrying her misery along or dragging it out in the most humiliating, painful way.

He doubted his client would understand if he had his fun with the drunken girl before disposing of her, if only because he left him waiting for so long. Regardless Seviathan couldn’t find a fuck to give as a wicked grin crept upon his handsome face.

“You know... you’re the prettiest one yet.” He remarked, reaching out a gentle hand as his fingers trailed along the soft curve of the woman’s jaw. Charlie instinctively leaned into the warm touch, eyes fluttering temptingly as they struggled to stay open.

“Huh?” She mumbled, her drunken mind processing the man’s touch far after it made contact. She reached up, a weak grip latching onto the man’s coat sleeve as she spoke. “What are you doing?”

Seviathan smiled reassuringly as his thumb ran across the girl’s rosy cheek, a soothing motion that aimed to suppress her growing concerns as he leaned in.

“Kissing you.” He merely answered, his alluring eyes seeming to burn brightly as they peered down in narrow slits. Charlie found herself growing weak beneath his comforting gaze, her nails digging into Seviathan’s heavy coat as she felt her eyes shut close, welcoming the stranger’s affection with a muddled body and mind.

“Ok...” She faintly whispered. Somewhere between his consoling presence and her intoxicated consciousness she decided against resisting the man. Instead she shockingly found herself leaning into his elusive validation and praise.

They only had each other to blame for why neither of them noticed the shine of headlights pulling up behind them as their lips connected in a heated embrace that’d soon end as swiftly as it began.

The heated moment came to a screeching halt as something suddenly hurled into Seviathan’s driver side window. The next thing Charlie knew she was screaming as the glass shattered across the vehicle’s interior, a strong hand reached in and pulled Seviathan out of the vehicle by the collar.

Suddenly, Charlie felt painfully sober, adrenaline absolving any and all alcohol from her system as she watched Seviathan being tugged out the broken window.

Seviathan gasped as the broken glass cut into his hands. He tried to grip onto the battered door frame but it was no use, the sheer strength of his attacker plucking him out of the luxury car like a nasty weed. The young man sputtered as he fell down onto the freezing asphalt, the rough terrain tearing at his skin as he felt a boot pressing painfully into his back, pinning him down when he tried to get up.

“Alastor!” Charlie shrieked, as she struggled to unbuckle her seat belt, kicking her door open in haste before leaping out.

“What did I say would happen if you tried to run again, Charlie!?” Alastor seethed, from his place towering above Seviathan, his breathing erratic as he reeled his arms back.

Charlie gasped, seeing a long metal rod of sorts in Alastor’s hands, the impromptu weapon was a piece of scrap metal that had been tossed into the back of Alastor’s truck, cut at a crude angle to form a horribly convenient point on one side. Alastor didn’t hesitate, cracking the heavy pipe down onto the young man’s hand, the same hand Seviathan had dared to touch Charlie with. The brutality of Alastor’s swing shattered the delicate bones on impact.

“—The fuck, man!” Seviathan cursed, clenching his teeth in agony as roared in pain, struggling as he attempted to kick the psychopath off him. Alastor easily dodged his fruitless attempt at defense, kicking the boy mercilessly in the stomach for even having the nerve to fight back.

“I wasn’t running! I was just trying to help him change a tire, Alastor! He was just going to drive me back to the house.” Charlie frantically explained, as she ran around the front of the car, waving her hands in a panicked attempt to usher the man to stop his assault. “I swear, Al! It’s true— You can ask Rosie, she’ll vouch for me!”

Alastor continued to ignore the woman like she wasn’t even standing there, getting tunnel vision as he moved to rub his heel savagely into Seviathan’s battered hand, procuring a fresh chorus of agony and colorful curses from the boy. A symphony that sounded heavenly to Alastor’s warped perception.

Charlie refused to be ignored though, doing the only thing she knew she could when Alastor reeled both his arms back to strike another blow, this time having flipped the weapon around to it’s far more deadly pointed edge.

“Please don’t—!” Charlie cried, throwing herself on top of the man currently bleeding across the snowy pavement, using her body to shield his own. Alastor sneered at the revolting sight.

“Charlie, get up!” He growled viciously, moving to pry the girl up himself only to have her struggle violently out of his grasp.

“He doesn't deserve to die!” She contested, shaking her head in adamant denial, refusing to budge from her spot even despite the look of raging anger Alastor fixed her with.

“You don’t get to decide that!” He hissed ruthlessly, his wild brown eyes practically glowing red as he tapped his foot impatiently.

“Neither do you!” Charlie retorted, straightening her back as she attempted to make herself look bigger than she really was. Alastor couldn’t say she looked very threatening but she did look particularly determined and unyielding.

He reasoned it’d be troublesome to deal with both of them like this, he couldn’t strangle the heathen while wrestling Charlie’s iron will at the same time. The man groaned in disdain, his mind coming to an unfavorable but suitable solution. He tossed his weapon aside as he bared his empty palms towards the girl, clear distaste etched across his face.

“Fine! Get off him and I won’t kill him.” He insisted, stepping back from them both with utter reluctance. The fuming man looked almost pained at the idea of letting the younger boy go, still he bit his cheek. He decided against tacking _‘yet’_ onto the end of his sentence, knowing it wouldn’t help his persuasive efforts with the girl.

Charlie eyed Alastor’s surrender skeptically, still perched on top of Seviathan’s back as she attempted to rake his fiery gaze for any signs of deceit.

“You’re lying!” She accused, her large eyes narrowing into thin slits as she stared holes into the man's feigned display of trustworthy innocence in front of her.

“Only one way to find out.” Alastor answered shortly with a distasteful click of his tongue, a tight painful smile finding its way onto his face despite the circumstances.

After a moment of silent deliberation Charlie huffed, rising up onto her feet after slinging Seviathan’s arm around her neck to help the disoriented man up. Charlie attempted to guide him back to the car when he suddenly got the brilliant idea to speak.

“You— You fuckin’ son of a bitch—!”

Alastor flipped like a switch.

His tense smile dropped instantly as his expression grew ice cold and bloodthirsty. He suddenly surged forward, grabbing the idiot by the back of the head before slamming his skull against the car’s sturdy frame with a sick cracking sound. Immediately the boy fell limp to the ground at their feet and Charlie screamed.

“You killed him!” Charlie screeched in horror, shoving against Alastor as she swung her hand back to fix him with a sharp slap across the face only to have her tiny wrist caught mid air.

“If only.” He spat with a genuinely regretful expression. His hand pulled on hers as he spun her around, leading the distressed girl away from the vermin’s body and towards his truck.

Charlie was ready to put up a fight, twirling back around to face the man only to be caught in his pointed gaze.

“Don’t—” Alastor warned before Charlie could even open her mouth. His jaw tight as he looked down at her firmly. “He’s just unconscious, and if you want it to stay that way then I suggest you get in the truck, Charlotte.”

Charlie bit her cheek, her mind attempting to weigh all her options before suddenly it was rattled by Alastor’s powerful voice snapping at her.

“Now!” The man demanded with a heavy air of finality as he pointed in the direction of his truck.

Charlie groaned in reluctant submission as she stormed over to the damn truck. She pulled the freezing metal door open as she reached the passenger side door. As soon as she opened the latch she was welcomed by Mimzy, perched in the middle of the front bench, with a sour scowl ruining her beautiful face.

“You just had to ruin our date night, didn’t you?” The woman huffed as she tapped her foot bitterly, staring straight ahead out the front window as she stewed in her bitterness. Charlie merely rolled her eyes as she shuffled in beside her.

“Good to see you’ve got your priorities straight, Mimzy.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoy this chapter! As always please leave any comments you might have down below, I love to hear what you all think! :)
> 
> The next chapter may or may not take me a little longer to release. For some reason I feel like it's been a bit harder for me to write just recently, I'm suspecting it's because chapter 10 is a bit more hazy to me than most, so I hope you'll be patient as I try to stitch together something comprehensive, lol. Until next time, I hope you all are doing well! Love ya! <3


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